Mahou Gakusei Ranma
by Nobody of Note
Summary: AU/Crossover with Ranma and Negima. Ranma is thrust into the world of magic at a younger age and must adapt to some very trying circumstances.
1. Prologue

**Note:**

Name simply means Magical Student Ranma and is a play on Negima's Japanese title Mahou Sensei Negima. I own neither Ranma 1/2 nor Negima. The story does assume at last passing familiarity with both series.

* * *

Ten-year-old Saotome Ranma still missed the school he'd had to leave a few weeks ago. Don't get him wrong, Ranma loved the traveling and the training and was willing to do what it took to be the best like his dad said. Still, it seemed every time he'd just made a friend he had to move on. His dad promised that if he worked hard he'd sign him up for a middle school in a few years and let him stay there for a while, but that was still a long way off, and he wasn't likely to make any new friends until then.

Ah well, maybe if he did good enough, his dad would let him go back to school even sooner. All fired up now, Ranma went back to mastering the new kata his father had taught him before heading off to do something on his own. Ranma pretty much had it down, but he wanted it perfect before his dad got back. But the older martial artist didn't give him as much time as he expected, as he ran up to the tent they'd set up in the middle of the woods muttering to himself.

"I can't believe they found me again out here," he said as he glanced back behind him. "None of the others were ever this persistent."

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked. "Did you get in trouble again?"

"Nothing like that," Genma answered. "Just an old friend of your father's who took a silly little talk we had a few years ago way too seriously. Now pack your things. We're getting out here."

"Sure," Ranma answered. "But where are we going?"

"I'm not sure yet. Maybe we could lose them in Hokkaido," he said after some thought. "But after Kyoto and now this, I just don't know if anywhere is safe."

Ranma continued to pack as his father thought it over until he finally smiled excitedly.

"That's it!" he declared. "We'll go to China."

"China?"

"That's right, Boy," his dad answered. "Always planned to go there sooner or later. Now's the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone."

Ranma had never been outside of Japan and he was excited to make his first trip to another country. He redoubled his efforts in packing as quickly as possible.

"China, China! We're going to China!" Ranma couldn't help but chant as he worked. Forget school, this could be the best thing that ever happened to him.

* * *

After a couple months of training in China, Ranma had long since grown tired of the country. Their training wasn't really any different than it had been in Japan. Only when they went into town to buy food and other stuff, neither of them understood what anyone was saying.

"Can't we just go back to Japan already?" Ranma asked, not for the first time. "I don't even care about who you were running from anymore. Just be a man and face them already."

"Fool! You lecture me on manliness when you're whining like a little girl?" he fired back. "It's not even about that. There are special training grounds you can only find in China. You'll never be the best if you stick to Japan where it's nice and easy."

"None of these old temples and stuff you've taken me to have seemed that special to me," Ranma argued.

"You're simply not ready for the really good ones!" his dad insisted. "If you really want to see them, then stop slacking and get back to your training."

Ranma still wasn't a big fan of China, but if they really were just saving the best training spots for last or something, then it would be a shame to leave now. So Ranma accepted that and launched himself at his father to continue the sparring match he'd interrupted to complain. His father though almost didn't seem to even be paying attention as he blocked all of Ranma's blows.

"Then again, I have been intrigued about this one training ground I've heard of," he announced. "Maybe it's time to pay Jusenkyo a visit."

* * *

As Ranma and his father finally came near Jusenkyo, after more than a week of traveling to get there, they noticed a couple of people already there off in the distance.

"So, what's so special about this training ground?" Ranma asked again, hoping to get a real answer out of his dad this time.

"This is a training ground so legendary that the details are shrouded in mystery," he answered as vaguely as always.

"Well, maybe they know something about it if you don't," Ranma said, picking up the pace toward the two people he could see, even if he wasn't very hopeful that they spoke Japanese.

Ranma had pretty sharp eyes, so he was still quite a ways off when he realized something strange was going on. One of the two men was wearing some kind of Chinese uniform and was currently tied up. The other was dressed up in some really fancy looking grey robe that made for one of the strangest outfits he'd ever seen. Having a feeling that something was off, he broke into a run toward the pair.

As he ran, he noticed more about the area. The valley they were in was filled with springs, and the man in the robes was holding a long staff of some sort so that it dipped into one of the springs on the edge of the valley. Some small hands were thrashing about out of the spring, and Ranma figured that the robed man must be trying to rescue someone that had fallen in.

"Stop Mister Customer!" the tied up man yelled out to him. "Please no drown child!"

Ranma then realized coldly that he wasn't trying to let the person in there grab on to the staff, he was holding them down. Ranma's run turned into a sprint, and despite seeing the hands stop thrashing a couple of seconds before he got there, he still dived straight into the spring, grabbing onto the limp body that was in there and throwing it out over the edge. Ignoring some odd disorientation and tingling, he jumped out himself.

Staring daggers at the man as if to challenge him to try something, Ranma saw that he was only looking on in amusement. Ranma quickly turned back to unmoving body, which he could now see belonged to a girl that was probably about his own age. But more importantly, she didn't appear to be breathing.

Ranma panicked briefly trying to remember what you do if someone wasn't breathing. Wait, it was that what do you call it? CPR? Ranma went to start the process as best as he remembered hearing about it someplace or another when he paused for a second. There were ears sticking up out of the girl's black hair that looked uncomfortably close to those you would find on a cat. But there was no time to think of that right now.

Ranma put his hands over the girl's chest and started pushing rhythmically, hoping he was doing it right. To his great relief, after barely over half a dozen, she coughed out water and then gasped in air. Her eyes then popped open and she looked at him in confusion.

"Another nekojin?" she asked, before she turned her gaze to the man that had just tried to drown her and jumped up in fright, grabbing Ranma's arm and trying to pull him along as well.

"Run!" she ordered. "He just tried to kill me! He already killed Arthur!"

But Ranma planted his feet and refused to budge. "Don't worry. We'll take care of him."

Ranma's father chose that moment to finally show up, and the girl took to just cowering behind Ranma, not trying to pull him anymore. Ranma took the moment to get a look at the guy. He looked to be a tall, think guy in his twenties or so with rather spiky, green hair that went down past his shoulders.

"What have you done to my son?" He demanded of the man in the robes.

What was his dad going on about? Was there something wrong with him? Now that he wasn't freaking out over a dying girl, he realized he did feel a number of strange sensations, most noticeably, there was obviously something pressed against his back. Reaching around back there, his hand clenched around something fuzzy and he quickly gave it a jerk, wondering if some strange animal had crawled back there.

"Yeouwch!" he cried out in pain, the cry sounding a little funny to his ears. That had really hurt. Had the thing bit him?

"I wouldn't recommend trying to pull out your own tail," the mysterious man declared. "And I'd like to thank you. I hadn't realized it was possible for the new spring to activate without killing the first subject. This brings up a whole new area of research to look into."

A tail? What sort of crazy person tried to claim someone had a tail. Only looking at the girl he'd just saved, he clearly saw now that she did have one to go along with those ears of hers. And hadn't she just said something about there being _another_ nekojin, whatever that was. Ranma reached out again for his rear with one hand while reaching the other up to his head. Check and check, Saotome Ranma had ears and a tail very much like the girl in front of him, ones that strongly resembled those of a cat.

"What on earth is this?!" Ranma yelled out in a mixture of fear and rage, and he held out the end of a tail that he could now see was bright red.

"Is magic of cursed spring of Jusenkyo," the captive man answered. "Is tragic tale of cat girl that nearly drown one minute ago."

"And think of all the possibilities," his captor declared. "Why you could make a fortune simply transforming low value slaves into more profitable bodies. And that's just the start. Of course there is the issue of the curse being incomplete. Switching forms could have its value too, but ideally I'd be able to make it permanent as well."

"It's not permanent?" Ranma asked hopefully, latching onto those words.

"Curse is permanent," the other man answered, still calmly explaining things despite his state. "Hot water turn to normal, but cold water bring back curse."

Ranma's hopes crashed at that.

"But as the guide here so kindly explained before you arrived, there is an artifact that will strengthen the curse. I don't know how exactly that works, but I'm always up for a little experimentation."

He then pointed his staff at Ranma, and despite himself, Ranma took a step back in fear.

"You'll do nothing else to my son!" his father yelled out, interrupting the man to send a fist right at his face. Only it stopped a couple of inches short of its target as if it had run into some kind of barrier.

"I think you'll do nicely to test the other spring I created," he declared, pointing his staff at Ranma's dad and firing off a blast of something that hit him in his gut, sending him flying into another spring.

His father quickly jumped out, but the water seemed to have changed his father even more than Ranma, and he was now covered in black and white fur, looking like some kind of strange Panda-man.

"I'm ready to run now!" Ranma declared, grabbing the girl he'd saved and pulling her along as he hightailed it out of there as fast as he could.

Ranma heard the man chanting in some weird language but continued to run, only to freeze up as something hit him from behind. He fell to the ground with his whole body feeling like it was on fire.

"What a greedy little curse. If that worked, it was even easier than I expected it to be, but we'll have plenty of time to see what that did later."

"You no get away with this," the so-called guide yelled out while Ranma was still writhing on the ground in pain. "Joketsuzoku come to investigate. Then you find you not only mage in China."

"Hmm, perhaps it would be best not to overstay my welcome," he mused.

The pain finally passing, Ranma found the girl was already trying to pull him back to his feet, but he was distracted from running again when he saw his transformed father charging at their attacker a second time, this time putting his whole body into a flying leap. He was again stopped a couple inches short, and Ranma took to running again. If his father couldn't hurt him, there was nothing Ranma could do. Besides, his dad should be fine. If there was one thing he was even more skilled at than martial arts, it was running away.

"I think everyone here needs to calm down a bit," the 'mage' was it? declared as he began chanting again.

Ranma looked back over his shoulder this time, hoping to dodge whatever might be fired his way, but instead a mist spread out in all directions from the man at a speed far greater than Ranma could outrun. Ranma braced himself for another round of pain, but this time, all that happened was that he suddenly felt very tired. Sluggishly, he tried to resist it but a second later he was out cold.

* * *

Ranma tried to force himself awake, getting the feeling that it was important, but something seemed to be fighting back. Still, he pressed on, and was soon able to force his eyes open. Looking around, he saw he that it was now after dark and he was in some kind of wooden cage with the sleeping forms of his father, the guide, and the girl from before. His father was back to normal, and hopefully, Ranma checked behind him but was sad to see the tail was still there. Staying on the ground, Ranma tried to shake his father awake without being noticed, but he didn't get any reaction.

"He was right in the center of the blast," the mage announced from outside the cage. "It will be a while before he wakes up."

Not being much point in pretending to still be asleep, Ranma sat up, seeing his captor standing outside of the cage and drawing some weird symbols on the ground.

"Teleportation circle," he answered as if reading Ranma's thoughts. "We've got a long way to travel, and I'm not about to do it on foot."

"How come my father turned back and I didn't?" Ranma asked him, since he seemed to like hearing himself talk.

"Because my experiment was a success!" he answered excitedly. "Hot water still works on your father, but as far as I can tell, has no effect on you. I really am glad you two came along. You've been a great help in my research."

"I don't want to help a murderer like you with anything!" Ranma snapped angrily, attacking the cage and trying to break through it.

"Those are magically reinforced," he announced when Ranma's attack had no effect. "And for the record, I can hardly be considered a murderer. Those things I brought with me aren't human. They couldn't even exist in this world without my help."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ranma fired back. "But you got me and my dad cursed too, and now you've made it so I can't even change back. You're a bad guy no matter what you say."

"But think of all I can learn from your sacrifice." the mage replied with a smirk. "The springs work in different ways. Some make you look exactly like the person that drowned there. Some change your personality. So why did yours change your species and gender while leaving you looking very similar to your old body?"

The words made Ranma's blood go cold. Gender? After a quick check Ranma let out a screech of rage.

"It's gone!" he, now technically she, cried out. "Change me back! Right now!"

This was terrible. Even worse than the freakish animal person thing. A girl? That was about the worst possible thing Ranma could turn into. Her dad always made it clear how bad it was to even act like a girl. To actually be one?

"Oh, so now you're ready to help in my research," the mage replied. "Don't worry. I have plenty of experiments left to try out. Just let me finish up here first."

Ranma was in tears now she was so upset. Stupid body was already getting to her. Boys didn't cry. At that point, the girl she'd saved started to stir, slowly sitting up. She looked crushed when she saw the cage she was in, but then turned to Ranma.

"I don't know what exactly happened, but I'm sorry you got involved in this," she told him.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Ranma told her, wiping the tears from her eyes and forcing herself to stop crying. "Not your fault."

"Well, thank you for trying to help," she said. "My name is Felicity. What's yours?"

"Ranma," she answered, before lowering her voice to a whisper. "Now how do we get out of here and way from this jerk?"

"We can't get out," Felicity answered, starting to cry herself. "Even Arthur couldn't break free, and now he's dead. We'll probably all be dead soon."

"Hey, hey," Ranma said. "We won't let that happen. My dad could probably break us out of here if we can just wake him up. He's the strongest martial artist I know."

"I don't know ..." Felicity answered, not at all convinced.

"Just help me out," Ranma pleaded. "Doesn't hurt to wake him even if it doesn't work."

Felicity still looked skeptical, but helped her as the two set to work doing everything they could think of to wake him, from yelling in his ear to pinching him. They even covered his mouth and nose for a full minute to stop his breathing, but all that did was turn his face blue. And Ranma was pretty sure they were running out of time, as the symbols that had been drawn on the ground were now starting to glow with a faint a light. Getting frustrated, Ranma just started kicking his father in the side as hard as he could.

"Ow, ow, hey stop that," his father said drowsily as he finally started to stir.

"Wake up already!" Ranma yelled at him, not slowing his assault at all.

"What's going on?" his dad asked as finally dragged himself to his feet.

"No time for that," Ranma yelled as he heard the mage start chanting again. "Break us out of here now."

Not arguing, Genma slammed his fist into the wood, which didn't budge at all.

"It's magic," Ranma told him. "Don't hold anything back."

"Hmm, I may have to unseal a forbidden technique for this," he announced, as he studied the wood.

"Don't talk about it; just do it!" Ranma yelled out angrily.

"Quiet, Boy," he snapped back. "I'm trying to remember how it goes. It's been a while since I sealed it."

Ranma was impatient as the chanting continued, but let her dad think. Thankfully, it was only a few moments later that he pulled his hand back and swung in forward, firing some sort of disc from his hand that cut right through the wood. Repeating the process, he quickly sliced most of the wall of the cage to pieces. Ranma stood there mouth open. Did her father know magic too?

"Go!" Genma ordered, shoving Ranma through the opening and following after.

"What about the guide?" Ranma asked, looking back over her shoulder to the still sleeping man.

"He'll just slow us down," her dad declared, scooping Ranma into his arms and sprinting toward the edge of the glowing symbols.

"At least get Felicity!" Ranma ordered, struggling to break free of her father's arms as she saw the girl falling behind as she ran after them.

But his dad ignored him as he continued to run, and Ranma was starting to think even they might not make it, as now there was a circle of light around the area that was quickly glowing brighter. Her dad must have had the same thought, as Ranma suddenly found herself thrown forward. Ranma passed over the edge of the circle and looked back mid-flight to see a bright flash of light. She had already roughly skidded to a stop before her eyes had adjusted back to the dark enough to see what had happened. Now there was no sign of her father, Felicity, or anyone else. Even the cage was gone. She was alone out here.

They really had teleported away. Searching the clearing for any clues, Ranma found nothing. She didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to deal with something like magic which she knew nothing about? She had to try to find help. But she didn't even know where she was right now or what direction to go. But Ranma wouldn't let that stop her. She'd show that she could still be tough even if she was stuck in a girl's body. She was really a guy after all, so she'd find help and rescue her father, and Felicity, and even the guide. Deciding one direction was as good as another, she picked one at random and set off.

* * *

Mousse was off on his own a short distance outside the village practicing a new technique. When he'd mastered this, he'd definitely be able to impress Shampoo. Then she'd realize how perfect they were for each other. He was just about ready to go back and complete his plan when he saw someone approaching. Had Shampoo come to see him? He rushed toward the figure excitedly, only to stop short when the person started spouting out Japanese. Since when did Shampoo get that good at Japanese? Despite himself, Mousse lowered his glasses over his eyes, being startled to see that not only was the red-headed girl not Shampoo, but that she had what appeared to be cat ears and a tail.

An animal person? Was she part of the Musk? Last he'd heard, they weren't even sure the Musk still existed. And why would one of them be speaking Japanese? Maybe they moved to Japan, and that's why they hadn't been seen in so long. Regardless, she was talking really quickly, and seemed to be very agitated about something. At this speed, Mousse was only picking out the occasional word, and wasn't making much sense of what she was trying to say. He was pretty sure she was looking for something or trying to get directions, but to where or why, he had no idea. Finally, he caught something he recognized, as she said something about Jusenkyo. He didn't know why she'd be looking for that place, but at least he could help out.

"That way," he said in Japanese, pointing toward the cursed springs.

She thanked him, bowing briefly before running off in the direction he'd pointed. Certainly was a strange encounter. He'd have to start working on his Japanese a bit more seriously though in case they ran into each other again. Anyway, he'd had enough training for now, so he quickly made his way back to the village, finally finding Shampoo after a couple cases of mistaken identity.

"I was hoping when you didn't bother me all morning that maybe you'd finally taken the hint," Shampoo told him with a sigh.

"I was out training," he told her. "I'm going to prove to you that I'm worthy of you."

"Mousse," Shampoo told him. "You need to get over this. You're a good fighter, and there are other girls that would be happy to get your attention. But you ignore them completely. You're so focused on me you won't even talk to anyone else our own age."

"That's not true!" Mousse argued. "I talk to other people."

"Really, when was the last time?" Shampoo asked.

"Less than an hour ago," Mousse answered. "When I was out training there was a Musk girl that I chatted with for a while."

"A Musk girl?" Shampoo asked. "If you're going to lie, at least make it more convincing."

"No really," Mousse insisted. "She had cat ears, and a tail, and everything. She spoke Japanese and she wanted directions to Jusenkyo."

"That sounds more like a demi-human than one of the Musk," a new voice added. "Assuming of course this isn't just a story."

Mousse quickly put on his glasses to see that Elder Cologne had been standing next to them this entire time.

"Why won't you believe me?" he answered. "I'm telling the truth."

"A demi-human here in China asking for directions to Jusenkyo?" Cologne replied. "Sounds more likely to be a fantasy to me."

"Really Mousse," Shampoo chimed in. "Just because I told you off for being too obsessed with me doesn't mean you need to make up an imaginary girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend!" Mousse insisted. "We just chatted. You know you're the only one for me."

"Whatever you say," Shampoo said dismissively.

"She is too real!" Mousse insisted.

This wasn't going at all like he'd planned. Shampoo was supposed to looking at him in admiration by now, not this. It didn't matter though. This was just a distraction. Today was the day he finally won her over. Then she'd believe he was telling the truth.

* * *

Ranma was glad to have a real course set out. She was afraid that boy she'd found hadn't spoken any Japanese when she asked for help. She'd even started babbling out her whole story. Still, he'd finally given her a direction in Japanese, so he must have understood her after all. So she'd hurried all the more, despite being up for nearly a day now.

Only instead of a village, she came to the top of a valley and saw herself looking down on Jusenkyo again. Well, maybe the village was on the other side of the valley. Getting the chills just seeing that place again, Ranma skirted far around it before continuing on. Then she kept traveling for hours on the other side without finding anything. It was really starting to get to her just how alone she was without her dad around. Still finding nothing, and with the sun setting for the second time since she'd escaped, Ranma was forced to admit she had to take a break.

Scavenging up some food and water, she had her first meal in a while and then let herself drift off to sleep. When she woke up, she went back to her search, but still found nothing but wilderness. She was beginning to worry that she'd never see her father again and was fighting really hard while she was searching just to keep herself together. But no, she couldn't think like that. They'd just teleported somewhere. That didn't mean her father was back in a cage. He'd just escape wherever he was and go looking for Ranma.

So Ranma just needed to be somewhere that her father could find her. With that in mind, maybe she should go back to Japan. Back to where they'd lived before they left for China. If she couldn't find her father, maybe she could find someone that knew where to look. And it would be easier to figure out how to get rid of this curse if she could actually talk to people.

With her mind made up, Ranma set to work getting back to Japan. It took her a couple of months to make her way to the coast, having to make sure she didn't starve on the way. Ranma had quickly learned that her appearance could create a bit of a stir when people realized her ears and tail were actually real, so she'd managed to borrow a cloak that could hide both, and made it easier to sneak into towns for a bit of food on the way.

The sea itself proved the greatest challenge yet. She'd swam across it with her father to get to China, but he'd carried her at times when she'd needed a rest. This time, she had to make it the whole way on her own. But one thing that hadn't changed, even being turned into a girl, it was that Ranma didn't give up. No matter how tired she got on the way, she just refused to give in and go under. Finally, she did reach land and used the last of her strength to pull herself a few feet out of the water before collapsing in exhaustion and falling asleep.

From there it was a much easier trek, but there were still a lot of problems. Mostly because Ranma tried to look for help with the curse as she traveled, but it seemed very few people took a ten-year-old seriously when they started asking about magic and curses. She found a few old geezers on the way that at least seemed open to the idea, but didn't have anything to offer beyond good luck charms that did nothing to help.

Once Ranma arrived back at the last place they'd lived before leaving, she began spending her time searching for magic even more seriously while she waited and hoped her father would show up. She had no more luck than before, until one day a middle-aged guy came up to her while she was walking down a side alley.

"Pardon me," he told her. "My name is Takahata, and I hear you've been asking around about magic."

"Yeah," she asked hopefully. "Nice to meet you Takahata-san. Names Saotome Ranma. Do you know anything about curses?"

"Why would a kid like you want to know about something like that?" he asked, as he flipped off the hood to her cloak faster than she could even follow.

"A demi-human?" Takahata suddenly asked in surprise. "How did you even get here?"

"No, this is my curse," Ranma told him. "I'm actually human. You ever hear of Jusenkyo?"

"Can't say that I have," he answered. "Curses aren't really my area of expertise, but if you put that hood back on and follow me, I can take you to someone who might know more."

"Great," Ranma said, actually getting a bit of cheer for the first since Jusenkyo.

"So, Ranma would be a boy's name, right?" Takahata asked as they walked.

"Yeah, I'm a guy," Ranma answered. "Or at least I was before the curse."

"That's ... interesting," he said. "But you shouldn't talk any more about that sort of thing until we get there. It's best if normal people don't find out about things like that."

Ranma wasn't sure why that was, but didn't argue. After a short ride on a train, and a bit of a walk after that, they finally got to a point where Takahata said it was okay to talk about things again. He and an old man named Konoemon, one that turned out to be a mage himself, asked Ranma all sorts of questions. Ranma told them the whole story; about Jusenkyo, the mage, her father, everything. Then the old man started poking and prodding her as if examining something while occasionally mumbling more of those strange words that mages seemed to like.

The whole process made Ranma very uncomfortable. Her experiences with magic hadn't been good, and she didn't like the idea of anyone magicking her up anymore, even if the guy seemed nice enough. So she tried to distract herself from what was going on.

"So how long do you think it will be until you can find the creep that did all this?" she asked.

"Don't worry, we'll find your father whatever it takes," the old mage answered, ignoring the question she'd actually asked. "I can't promise you a date, but we'll locate him as soon as we can. And you can rest assured that we'll make sure you're properly taken care of until he's found."

That sounded like a pretty weak promise to Ranma, but she supposed she should be thankful for whatever help she could get.

"So, you're a mage right?" Ranma asked. "So can't you just magic me back into a guy?"

"I don't think that will work, but let's give it a try," Konoemon answered.

"Wait, what?" Ranma asked in fear, as he started chanting. "What are you doing?"

Ranma closed her eyes and braced herself, but nothing seemed to happen when he finished chanting.

"As I thought," he told her. "That spell should have turned you into an ermine, but Jusenkyo's magic is too strong, and doesn't seem like any other transformations muscling in on its territory. But there might be something I can do."

"Hey, stop already!" Ranma complained as he began chanting again.

She didn't know what an ermine was but wasn't happy that he'd tried to turn her into one. Ranma was just about to make a run for it and leave this nut behind, but again, she didn't feel anything when he finished.

"That's much better," he declared. "Have a look in that mirror there."

Ranma did as she was directed, still seeing the red hair, and other more subtle changes in her face that the curse had made, but there was no sign of the strange ears, or the tail when she looked behind her.

"So why did this work?" Ranma asked, only then realizing that the way she heard what was being said was still off. Reaching up she felt the furry ears on her head, despite seeing nothing in the mirror.

"It's only an illusion," Konoemon told her.

"Then what's the point in the first place?" Ranma asked irritably.

"This way you won't need that cloak of yours," Takahata answered. "It really is quite important that we keep magic a secret, so we can't exactly let you walk around with those cat ears and tail."

"They're not cat ears," Ranma insisted, having been doing her best to convince herself of that. "They're some other animal. Maybe a dog or something. I don't know. Definitely not cat though."

"Well, whatever they are, it's best if they aren't seen," he answered.

"So, isn't there anything you can actually do about the curse?" Ranma asked.

"Maybe with time," Konoemon answered. "But it's a strong and complicated piece of magic, and it's already been altered. We'll set you up a place to stay here, and I'll work on it while the search for your father goes on."

"And what am I supposed to do until then?" Ranma questioned him.

"I'm glad you asked," he answered. "So tell me, how do you feel about going back to school?"

* * *

**Four Years Later**

The introduction to his class certainly hadn't been what he'd expected. With the pranks they'd set up, the class's fawning over how cute he was, and then the fight between Asuna and Ayaka, it had been very loud if nothing else. Which was why Negi was more than a little surprised to see a girl seated in the back was still sleeping soundly with her head against the desk her long pony-tailed hair hanging over the edge of the desk. Looking down at his class list, he found her name. Saotome Ranma. There was a note from Takahata-sensei next to the name that read: "Has trouble making friends."

Well, he was her teacher now, so maybe he could try to help her with that if he got a chance, but for now, he had his first class to teach.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I never expected I'd write any sort of Ranma-chan story, but after devouring the Negima manga recently, I felt compelled to write this. I definitely wanted Ranma to be a student, and given the all-girls nature of the school, this just seemed the best way to go. Still, I can run with it and have some fun writing it.

Now, a few notes about the story itself. This is AU on the Ranma side. Most of his past will be the same as canon, but there will definitely be some changes, but I'm holding my cards very close to my chest in that regard. A few things I would like to make clear though, even if you can probably guess these.

1. Based on the timeline for his leaving for China, Ranma will have met Ukyo but will not have met Ryoga.

2. Ranma's hair isn't in the traditional braid mostly due to the fact he only picked that up as a result of the dragon whisker fiasco. Imagine his hair more like it was in the flashback to the Jusenkyo trip.

3. This story is based on manga continuity for both stories.


	2. A New Teacher

Ranma was somewhat aware that she dreaming, realizing it one moment only to slip back into the dream the next. Currently, she was fighting the mage that had cursed her and stolen away her father. Only like most nights, her fists stopped short of hitting man, blocked by invisible barriers. Then it was no longer the mage she was fighting, but Takahata-sensei.

"You should try to make friends," he told her. "Stop pushing everyone away."

"But I don't have time for that," Ranma argued. "I can't even hit the guy yet. I waste enough time already with school. How am I supposed to rescue my old man?"

"You have all the time in the world," said the person that was now Dean Konoemon. "I have no clue where your father or the mage are. Haven't figured anything out with your curse either. Not really doing much of anything I suppose."

"Well, I need to be ready," Ranma insisted.

"Why don't you just stay in that body?" her father now asked. "You've gotten so used to it after all. Maybe that's why I haven't come back. I saw how much of a girl you've become and I was too ashamed to speak to you."

"No!" Ranma insisted. "I'm still a guy! I'll turn back just as soon as I figure out how."

"Saotome, stop sleeping during class!" Ayaka ordered.

Huh, where had that come from?

"I said wake up!" the voice came again, as Ranma started to do just that.

"Huh, Iincho?" Ranma asked as she sat up. "Can you let me sleep five more minutes?"

"No!" she insisted, seeming a lot more fired up about this than she usually was. "You're being rude to Negi-sensei."

"Negi-sensei?" Ranma asked in confusion looking around and finding a kid in a suit standing at the front of the class. "You don't mean the kid, do you?"

"He's our new teacher!" Makie called out excitedly. "Isn't he adorable?"

Ranma wondered if this might be a prank of some sort, but the class seemed pretty serious about it. Or at least as serious as class 2-A ever was. It was weird, but Ranma supposed it didn't really matter.

"Fine, fine," she said. "One teacher is as good as another."

She got a few glares at that, most noticeably from Ayaka, but when she made no attempt to go back to sleep, they left her alone.

"You can continue your lesson now, Negi-sensei," Ayaka called out cheerfully.

"Right," he answered, and immediately went to work on an English grammar lesson.

Kid didn't seem half bad at teaching either, but it was hard to tell for sure with Asuna constantly interrupting by flinging bits of eraser at his head whenever he turned his back. Eventually, it turned into another brawl between Asuna and Ayaka. Heh, at least there was a bit of entertainment in today's class.

Sadly, the lessons after English finished were even duller than usual. The class must have wasted all its energy on the kid teacher, because no one caused any problems the rest of the day. When school was out, Ranma made to rush off like usual when Ayaka called out to her.

"Hold it Saotome. We're planning a welcoming party for Negi-sensei, and we want the whole class to be there."

"Sorry, I'm busy," she answered, turning and heading out the door. Her classmates knew by now that it was pointless to argue, so Ranma went off to find Takahata-sensei. That proved simple as she bumped into him in the hallway before she even made it to his office.

"Ready for training?" she asked eagerly. "I've got something new to try in our next sparring match. Want to see what you think of it."

"I'm sorry, but I won't be able to work with you today," he answered. "I'm going to be attending the welcoming party for Negi-sensei."

"Do you have to?" Ranma asked in annoyance.

"You should come as well," he suggested. "It's a good chance to get to know your classmates better."

"Don't start with me," she told him. "I got enough of that out of dream-you."

"I'm sorry?" Takahata said with a touch of amusement. "I just think you'd be happier if you made some friends."

"Sorry, but school is a big enough waste of time," Ranma told him. "If I let the girls pull me into their tea-parties and doll playtime I'd never get anything done."

"Despite how long you've been a girl, you really have some strange ideas about what girls are like, don't you?" Takahata asked. "You do know there are plenty of athletic clubs and outdoor activity groups as well, right?"

"Still not going to the party," Ranma said stubbornly.

"Well, I won't force you," he told her. "But if you're so eager for a lesson, perhaps you should meet with Dean Konoemon. He tells me you've missed a lot of sessions again lately."

"Erk," Ranma said, having hoped he wouldn't have found out about that. "Well, you know how it is. I've never been that into those lessons in the first place. I'm a martial artist, and that's what I want to focus on."

"Do you know how often I've wished for a talent in that field myself?" Takahata asked. "It's a shame to see you letting that go to waste without even seeing what you can really do."

"Well, maybe I'll pay him a visit today," Ranma told him, while having absolutely no intention of doing so. "Have fun at the party."

Ranma then hurried off before he decided to walk her to the dean or something. Even after four years, magic just didn't sit right with her. She'd been bullied into some basic training and had a few beginner spells she could cast, but even if she was the one using it, magic just felt dirty or something. Just those simple incantations practically gave her goose bumps.

So instead, Ranma left the school and made her way to one of the high schools that were housed in Mahora Academy. Arriving, Ranma was pleased to see a good crowd gathered at the usual spot.

"Hey guys," she called out to the group of older boys, some of which were already at work beating each other up. But as soon as they saw her, all other fights stopped as they rushed at Ranma.

Individually, none of these guys were that good, but all at once it could make for some good practice, especially with the handicap of making sure none of them found the invisible parts of her body. Or at least that used to be the case. It had been getting to be less and less of a challenge as time went by, which was why she didn't come here as often as she used to.

Sure enough, Ranma was tearing through her opponents without much effort. Soon there was no one left willing to come at her again.

"That's was rough, Ranma," one karate practitioner declared. "I thought we'd at least tag you this time after all our hard work."

"You guys aren't the only ones who have been training," Ranma answered.

"So are you and Fei-buchou ever going to have a match?" a kendoist chimed in from where he was still lying on the ground trying to find the strength to get up again. "There's a lot of money on who the winner of that fight would be."

"I don't know; maybe someday."

Ranma wouldn't mind a match with Ku Fei sometime, but she'd learned years ago that if you started to get friendly the other girls would be all over you. 'Join our club' or 'you should each lunch with us' or any number of other things. It was a slippery slope. One day she'd just be sparring with Ku Fei, the next she'd be gossiping away during lunch, and before she knew it they'd be dragging her along to shop for dresses with them.

No, if she wanted to preserve her manliness in an all-girl school it was best to make it clear to all of them that she wanted to keep her distance. She only wished there were more decent martial artists around that weren't in her class. Takahata-sensei was really strong, but he was also busy with his job and couldn't help her nearly as much as she'd have liked. But being left to her own devices didn't stop her from finding her own ways to train and get stronger.

"Looked really sharp today," Gotokuji Kaoru called out, having actually sat out of the action himself today. "And that one kick you used on Jumonji was new, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it's something I've been working on," she answered proudly.

This was probably the best part of coming here. Kaoru wasn't much better than the rest of the guys here as an actual fighter, but he had good eyes and an extensive knowledge of martial arts. He'd aided her any number of times by critiquing her style and helping her work out the flaws in it.

"Well I like it," he told her. "It really flowed well from your previous stance, and it's not the sort of attack most people will be expecting. That said, I'm not even sure how you managed to pull it off. It seems half the moves you use these days I can't get through without falling flat on my face, no matter how much I try."

"Just will power and training, I guess," Ranma said with a forced laugh.

Ranma hated the curse in general, but once she'd gotten used to it, she found a tail was a lot of use in martial arts. It may not weigh much, but if used right, the extra ability to shift balance opened up a whole new set of possibilities. Ranma had spent a lot of timing working those new possibilities into the Anything Goes style.

Sure she'd lose them all when she finally gave the curse the boot, but she wasn't going to ignore that possible advantage until then. And if she'd become a bit proud of the personal style she'd built so far, she'd still toss it to the side in a heartbeat to get her father and her own body back.

"Whatever you say," he answered. "Anyway, I've been mulling over that thing from last time, and I think I know how we can get a bit more power on the third punch without slowly down the combo."

"Great, what have you got?" Ranma asked, eager to hear it. See, this was way better than any stupid party.

* * *

Although he was still a bit nervous about being the center of attention, Negi was enjoying the party in his honor. Looking around though, he didn't see the girl that was sleeping in class earlier. He had thought this might be a good chance to get to talk to her in a relaxed setting.

"Iincho, is Saotome-san around?" he asked Ayaka.

"If you mean Haruna, she's over there," she answered pointing out a girl that was talking with Nodoka.

"Actually, I meant Ranma," not having even noticed there was another Saotome in the class. "Are the two of them related?"

"I don't believe so," Ayaka answered. "As for Ranma, she couldn't be bothered to show up. But don't worry, I'll give you twice as much attention to make up for it."

"That's too bad," Negi said. "I heard from Takahata-sensei that she has trouble making friends."

"More than just trouble. I don't think she has any friends," Ayaka declared. "The general consensus is that she doesn't much likes people in general. I mean if she can't even be nice for Negi-sensei, then there's really no hope for her."

"Are you sure she isn't just shy?" Negi asked.

"Shy?" Asuna cut in with a snort, having made her way over. "That girl will mouth off to anyone. I couldn't possibly imagine her as shy."

"I just can't believe anyone would want to isolate themself like that," Negi said sullenly. "There has to be something we can do to help."

"Don't worry so much about her," Asuna insisted. "Even Takahata-sensei couldn't get her to open up to the class, so what do you think a brat like you is going to do?"

Maybe Asuna was right, and he shouldn't pry into this any further. Ranma might not like someone younger than her forcing his way into her affairs. Still, it didn't feel right to just leave it at that.

* * *

Ranma carefully snuck her way back to the dorm, locating the window of her fifth floor room and leaping up. Balancing on the frame, she opened the window and slipped inside.

"Out past curfew again?" Chao Lingshen asked, as she sat at her desk tinkering away with some sort of machine. "You're just going to fall asleep in class again if you keep this up."

"You're still up too, ya know," Ranma pointed out to her roommate.

"Can't help it," she said. "I fell a little behind schedule."

Ranma let it drop at that and slipped into her bed. She would have preferred her own room, but Chao wasn't the end of the world to share a place with. She understood that all being roommates meant was that they lived together and didn't try to use that as a springboard to drag her into anything else. Sure she was more than a little strange, but you really did get used to the robots and other crazy contraptions after a while.

Checking a quick glance at the clock though she realized Chao was right. Hopefully Ayaka would be a bit more lenient tomorrow, because Ranma was going to need some extra sleep.

* * *

Ranma had slept completely through Negi's second day of classes. He'd been tempted to wake her, but didn't want to get off on the wrong foot. Besides, he had bigger worries right now. He might not have helped Ranma at all, but he'd made a mess of things for Asuna yesterday. Although now that he'd finished this love potion, he might be able to make it up to her.

So he left his room and rushed back to the school where he hoped to find her. Only he was in such a hurry, then he raced around a corner and crashed into someone else. Even worse, he hadn't put the stopper in very tightly, so the love potion spilled all over the front of the older boy in front of him.

"Oh, no!" Negi cried out as he saw his chances to redeem himself dashed.

"You alright, Kid?" asked the boy.

"I'm fine," Negi answered, "and I don't think there will be any effect on you since you didn't actually drink it."

"Oh, was that supposed to be a magic potion or something?" the boy asked with a laugh, making Negi pale a bit in fear.

"No, no!" he said quickly. "Nothing like that. It was just a … a science experiment!"

"Oh, a science experiment, huh?" he answered, patting Negi on the head. "Well, sorry to have spoiled it for you. I hope you make a breakthrough in your research."

"Thanks, but uh, I have to be going," Negi said, picking up the test tube and looking sadly at the small amount of liquid left. He just hoped it would still be enough to work. But before trying it he should go back and check his notes to see if they said anything on dosage. Why couldn't anything just work out when he was trying to help?

* * *

Ryoga laughed again as the kid ran off, all dressed up in his suit and back to playing scientist. Sniffing at where the liquid had spilled on his shirt, he didn't smell anything. Couldn't even see a stain, so there was really no harm done. Now Ryoga just needed to figure out where he was. The buildings around here looked very western in style, and that kid had been a foreigner. Maybe he was at the US base in Okinawa.

But was that closer or farther from Kyoto than Osaka? He hoped he hadn't being going the wrong way. Ryoga was just thinking of asking for directions when someone called out to him.

"You know this is an all-girls school, right? Are you lost or something?"

Ryoga turned to see a cute-looking girl with red hair in a school uniform talking to him. She didn't look very happy to see him either, but Ryoga supposed it made sense if he'd wandered into a school for the wrong gender.

"Ah, I'm trying to find my way to Kyoto," he admitted.

"Kyoto huh?" she asked. "Well, there's a train station not too far from here. I think you can probably make a connection there to get to Kyoto. Just need to head down this street and take your first right, then the first left, and then go straight for a few blocks. You can't miss it."

Ryoga tried to picture the directions in his head, hoping that might help him keep them straight, but all he could do was worry about getting confused and walking in circles.

"That was, uh, the first left and then it's on the right after a few blocks, right?" he asked, trying to recall what she'd just told him.

And this is the part where she would get angry and think he was making fun of her. He was already preparing himself for the worst when she answered.

"I can walk you there if you'd like," she told him casually. "I'm free right now."

Ryoga immediately brightened up. "That would be great!" he said excitedly. "I really appreciate it." He hadn't been expecting such a helpful reply. Maybe he'd make it to Kyoto after all.

"No trouble at all," she told him as she started walking down the road, with Ryoga following right behind. "Name's Ranma by the way."

Unusual name. Ryoga didn't think he'd ever heard of a girl named Ranma. He wondered what characters she used to spell it.

"You're a martial artist aren't you?" Ranma asked him.

"Yeah, you can tell?" he asked, surprised that she'd notice.

"Yep, I'm a martial artist too," she answered. "Besides, not many regular people can carry a backpack as oversized as that like it's nothing."

"Ah, yeah, I'd forgotten about that," he said with a chuckle.

"So you travel a lot?"

"More than I'd like sometimes," he admittedly sheepishly. "But yeah, I've been all over the place."

"Must be nice," she said. "I've been stuck here for years now, but I'd love to just trek around the countryside again."

"Yeah … um … that would be good," Ryoga answered, cursing himself for how dumb that sounded. It was happening again. He just got so nervous around girls and with Ranma being so friendly it only made it worse.

"When you finish what you have to do in Kyoto you should come visit again," Ranma suggested.

She actually wanted to see him again? Quick how was he supposed to answer that? "I … when … maybe?" Gah, he blew it. Now she was going to think he was a moron and hate him. Who was he kidding? He was an idiot.

"It's been a lot of fun talking with you," she told him. "I know we just met and all, but there's something I want you to know. I … I …"

Ryoga looked over at her, wondering what it could be and saw that Ranma looked absolutely terrified about something.

"I can't do this!" she suddenly declared loudly, as she turned and ran.

"Wait, what about the train station?" Ryoga tried to call out to her, but Ranma didn't stop and was out of sight around a corner in no time. She must have been serious about being a martial artist too. Ryoga didn't think he'd have been able to keep up with her if he tried. At least not while carrying his backpack.

Ryoga would have liked to try to figure out what that was all about, but he really did need to get to Kyoto. Now what direction had they been going again?

* * *

There wasn't much Negi had been able to do to help with the potion. The notes on it made it clear that it was probably a lost cause at this point. He'd wasted too much time for one thing. Even if this was enough, by the time he found Asuna and gave it to her, the magic in the potion would already be wearing off. You had to drink these things quickly.

Well, he should find Asuna anyway and see if there was something else he could help her with. Setting out back toward the school, Negi was distracted temporarily from thoughts of Asuna when he saw Ranma standing by herself leaning her forehead against the outside wall of the school building. This might be a chance to finally get to talk to her. He approached her from behind and was about to call out to her when he heard her mumbling to herself.

"Stupid curse," she said, the low volume doing nothing to disguise the extreme venom in her statement "I hate it. How could it do this to me?"

Curse? Ranma was cursed? Negi was trying to decide how he should handle overhearing that when Ranma slumped onto the ground and curled up in a fetal position. Whatever had happened, she was clearly _very _upset about it. Negi continued to just stand there for a minute debating whether to leave her alone or try to talk with her.

"What did you do to Ranma?" Asuna asked him sharply from behind.

Negi tried to shush her, but it was too late, as Ranma turned around and saw them.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked as if in a bit of a haze. "And why am I on the ground? Uh, my head is all fuzzy. I think I'm going to take a nap now."

Laying her head back on the ground she appeared to do just that.

"You didn't try to blast her memories away too, did you?" Asuna asked him. "You have to do a better job of keeping your secret."

"No, I didn't do anything!" Negi insisted. Although she was right that it had looked almost like Ranma had forgotten everything that just happened. Which reminded him of a side effect of a certain potion he'd been working on.

"Actually, maybe I was partially responsible for this," he admitted.

"Spill it," Asuna demanded. "How did you mess up this time?"

"I was working on a love potion for you to make up for everything that happened," he explained. "But then I bumped into a boy who was walking around campus and spilled it on him. I didn't think it would do anything if you didn't drink it, but those under the effect of it do forget everything when it wears off, so I think Ranma might have run into that boy too."

"Why were you making a love potion when you can't even manage a memory spell without blasting someone's clothes off?" she asked him angrily. "Did you actually think it would work?"

"Ryoga-kun, come back!" they heard a loud voice cry out as the boy from earlier sprinted by off in the distance being pursued by a large crowd of girls. Most of them he didn't recognize, but there were a few from his own class in there as well.

"Okay, so maybe it did work a little," Asuna admitted when they were gone. "But that doesn't make it right what you've done to them."

"The other girls will all forget everything too," Negi quickly assured her.

"Fine, just don't try anything like this again," Asuna ordered him. "Now what do we do about sleeping beauty here?"

Negi was thinking very hard about just that, and if he was right, the potion may have come to some use after all. Ranma had clearly run into that Ryoga boy and fallen for him thanks to the potion. But rather than chase after him like the other girls, she ran off alone and agonized over some curse.

"Asuna, do you know of anything wrong Ranma? Something that might be considered a curse?"

"Other than her bad personality, no. Why do you ask?"

"She was talking to herself about a curse when I showed up," Negi answered. "She was pretty upset about it. I was thinking that might have something to do with why she pushes everyone away."

"Well, watch what you say about it, we've got company," Asuna said, pointed to where their last roommate, Konoka, was walking toward them as she waved cheerfully.

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" she asked, before looking down to where Ranma lay. "Is Ranma alright?"

"She's just sleeping," Negi assured her. "By the way, do you know of any secrets Ranma might have that she'd be ashamed of? I, uh, overheard her talking about something like that in her sleep, but I don't know what it could be."

"I don't really know much of anything about Ranma," Konoka admitted, as she made a show of thinking it over. "The characters used to write Ranma are even more boyish than the name sounds. I suppose that could be embarrassing. But come to think of it, didn't she actually seem proud of her name? Yeah, I don't think that's it after all. Why would you want to know something like that anyway?"

"Well, I'm her teacher, so it's kind of my job to help my students. I thought that if I found out what it was, I might be able to help her get along with everyone else."

"I think you're jumping to conclusions there," Asuna cut in. "Some people are just unfriendly jerks, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Asuna is only saying that because she's jealous of how much time Ranma spends with her beloved Takahata-sensei," Konoka teased. "Ranma really isn't that bad. It's not like she's mean or a bully to anyone. She just doesn't socialize much."

"Well excuse me for being touchy about it. So I find it a little odd that she never has time for anyone in class but she's practically glued to the hip to Takahata-sensei whenever she gets the chance."

"Well, I've seen her a lot with my grandfather too," Konoka told them. "And I don't get the feeling she goes to see Takahata-sensei for the same reason you do. Maybe they're helping her out with whatever her secret is?"

"Wow, so there are two people instead of one the ice queen will deign to meet with?" Asuna asked, trying to brush off her friend's statement but being unable to completely hide the fact that she was relieved by the news.

"Well, we should ask her about it when she wakes up," Negi suggested.

"Don't even think about it," Asuna replied quickly. "If she's been keeping something from everyone this long, then she obviously wants it kept a secret. You'll just upset her if you go asking about it."

"See, you do care after all," Konoka quipped. "But Asuna is right; boys shouldn't pry into a girl's secret."

"Sorry, Sensei, but I'm beat," Ranma muttered as she began to stir. "I'll make up the work later. Just let me sleep."

Ranma then sat up and looked around before hopping to her feet.

"Huh, what am I doing sleeping out here?"

"We, found you like that," Negi answered. "You really shouldn't sleep outdoors."

"Didn't plan on it," Ranma told them. "Man, I had no idea I was that tired. Maybe I should start turning in on time. Well, see you tomorrow, Negi-sensei."

Negi was glad to see that Ranma was feeling better. It was probably a good thing the potion made her forget what had happened. He'd listen to his students' advice for now and not mention anything, hoping he could get her to open up on her own eventually. Of course that didn't mean he couldn't do a little studying into how to remove curses in the meantime.

* * *

Ryoga had finally lost the girls for good this time. He'd thought he'd lost them before, but every time he did they somehow took a shortcut or something and ended up cutting him off. Ryoga had never realized schoolgirls could be that crazy. It felt kind of good at first that so many girls actually found him attractive, but then they went insane or something. It was like he was a piece of meat thrown in front of a pack of hungry dogs.

At least that Ranma girl had been nice, though, even if she had run off early. Ryoga idly thought on how it might not have been that bad if she'd been the one attracted to him. She'd been friendly, cute, and outgoing. She liked martial arts and wanted to travel more. She hadn't gotten upset with his trouble with directions and even said she'd enjoyed talking with him.

Actually, was it possible that she did like him? From the right perspective that last bit could almost look like she'd been about to confess to him but then got scared and ran off. No, Ryoga should stop being stupid. She was way too great a girl to like someone like him. Nothing that good would ever happen in his lifetime. Still, it wouldn't hurt to take her up on her offer to visit Okinawa again once he finished with his business in Kyoto.

Well, at least on that front things were looking up. After he'd shaken those girls, he'd actually found his way onto that train he'd been looking for. It was a bit of a strange train though. It wasn't as smooth of a ride as you usually got, and there weren't any windows around him. But at least it was nice and spacious, even if most of the room was taken up by crates. And looking at boxes got boring fast, so Ryoga decided to walk around and see if he could find anyone else to talk to.

Soon enough he found a set of stairs, and going up them was surprised to find sunlight and open air. Confused, he looked around him, only to see water in every direction. This wasn't a train; it was a boat!

"Not again!" he cried out angrily.

Oh man, he was never going to make it to Kyoto on time at this rate.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

There we go. First real chapter done. The last one was the prologue and thus was a bit more condensed than how I normally write, so this chapter is a better indication of my writing style overall. Did have some comments that the first chapter felt a bit rushed, and that's why.

I'd considered leaving the prologue out completely and only handling it in flashbacks, but eventually decided there was just too much that happened and it was awkward to handle that way. My brief summary got a bit out of hand and ended up as some hybrid summary/actual chapter with inconsistent pacing, but I think it did what it needed to do, and I'm not really unhappy with it.

Moving on, I forgot to mention this last time, but as for the nekojin thing for Ranma's cursed form, I know there are demi-human's with the basic cat-ears and tail like he has, but I can't for the life of me find any official name, so I just used the generic cat person. If anyone does know a canon name for them, please do let me know so I can correct it. Also, a refresher for those who don't recognize the name, Gotokuji Kaoru was the commentator with the pompadour hairstyle during the festival tournament.

But back to the details of the story, as you can see, I'm not just going to forget the other Ranma characters. Some of them will be very integral to the story.

One other thing to keep in mind: on the Negi side of things, I'm not going to copy and paste the text of minor events Ranma isn't involved in that pretty much follow canon. Unless my writing indicates things changed, it's pretty safe to assume that events that aren't mentioned happened as they did in the manga.

Hopefully, I can take this story in an original enough direction that it won't happen too often, but early on especially you'll get some of that.

Finally, thanks for the great response I got. I've never had so many reviews so quickly on a new story.


	3. Baka Rangers

Negi hadn't had any luck helping Asuna today either. His staff hadn't been able to carry her on her paper route, and trying magic to help her wash up had backfired completely. Still, he couldn't let himself get depressed. He just had to keep doing his best, both with Asuna and with teaching in general.

The timing was good on his newfound resolve, as Shizuna-sensei chose that moment to bring him Takahata's list of students for after-class lessons. There were six faces on the list: Ku Fei, Nodoka, Kaede, Yue, and most importantly to him, Ranma and Asuna. This could be the perfect chance. He could actually help Asuna in something without messing up and start to build Ranma's trust at the same time.

"All right, I'll definitely do my best in the after-school lessons," he vowed.

Soon enough, the time had come to do just that, and Negi found himself in class with the six students in question. He was just thinking of calling the lessons into session when Makie beat him to punch.

"And so, class 2-A's Baka Rangers have assembled."

"Who's a Baka Ranger?" Asuna protested.

"Joined once again by the mysterious Baka White," Makie continued, pointing to Ranma.

"It's been a while, aru." Ku Fei declared.

"I thought I'd gotten the hang of doing just enough to avoid these things too," Ranma grumbled more to herself than in reply. "I really underestimated that last test."

"Well, I'm going to start us off with a short ten question quiz," Negi informed them, not sure of how exactly to respond to the Baka Rangers thing. It did look kind of fun though. "You can't leave until you get at least six right. After I grade them, I'll go over the areas you still need to work on."

Passing out the sheets, he waited as his students hurried to complete them. Yue handed hers in first, surprising him by getting 9 of 10 correct when he hadn't given any extra lessons yet. After she'd walked off with her friends, Ranma handed her test in next. Going over the paper, he saw that she'd gotten half of them right.

"Not bad, Ranma," he told her. "It seems you've got a good base, so it won't take much work at all to get you out of here."

"Aw come on, I only missed it by one," Ranma complained. "Can't you cut me a little slack and let me out of here? I have things to do."

"I'm sorry, Ranma," he answered. "I'll try to make it quick, but these lessons are important for your end of term exams."

"Fine, whatever," Ranma huffed, going back to her seat.

His other students had finished up in the meantime, and a quick grading showed a mix of 3s and 4s with Asuna bringing up the rear with her 2. It looked like he had his work cut out for him after all, but he'd do his best. After a short lesson focusing especially on the areas most or all of them had struggled on, he passed out a second quiz for them to work on. This time, Ranma sped through test and handed it in, getting 9 out of 10 correct.

"Great work," he praised her, glad to see such progress. "If you ever want any extra tutoring, I'd be more than happy to help even outside of these formal lessons."

"Thanks, but the less time I spend on school work the better as far as I'm concerned," Ranma answered, dashing his hopes that it might be the key to getting her to open up. "I'm out of here."

With the exception of Asuna, all the rest of his students passed on the second attempt too, if only barely in Makie's case. Asuna somehow hadn't improved her grade at all. Well, he wasn't going to give up on her. He might not have gotten through to Ranma, but this was still his big chance to help Asuna.

* * *

It had been six days since Negi had shown up, and Ranma still hadn't gotten used to the thought of a ten-year-old kid teaching them. Overall, Ranma would have preferred they still had Takahata-sensei, because now she had two teachers trying to push her to mingle with the rest of the class. On the other hand, Negi didn't have as much control over class, which had its benefits. Like when she'd used the confusion of the dodgeball match the other day to slip out of class completely.

Had its downsides too though. Takahata-sensei would have never let the class get that carried away with a strip review game. Ranma had avoided a scene by pretending to sleep through it, because her refusal to participate it that insanity went far beyond simply keeping out of school-girl life. So maybe even that lack of control was just another downside.

Meh, even if she didn't like the change, their new teacher was far down the list of her problems. Even ignoring the obvious giant ones, there was the issue of Takahata-sensei being increasingly scarce lately, and Dean Konoemon getting pushier about his lessons. The old man had a lot of nerve. He'd hardly done one thing for her in four years and he still insisted on wasting both their times on magic lessons she didn't even want.

Worse yet, she'd actually shown up for once tonight, and the old fool hadn't even been there. After all that badgering, he stood her up. Ah well, just meant she'd have more time for things she'd rather be doing. Ranma would head back to her room, change out of this stupid school uniform, and get back to her real training. She had just finished changing into some sweat pants and a simple shirt when she heard a pair of footsteps stopping outside the door.

"The directory says this is her room," she heard Honya say from outside.

Ranma's roommate seemed to have a finger in everything, so it was a regular occurrence for someone to come looking for her. They'd be leaving disappointed this time, however.

"Chao isn't here right now," Ranma called out through the door before they even knocked.

"We didn't come for Chao," Asuna answered, identifying who the other visitor was. "We have something you'll want to hear about the end of term exams."

"Thanks, but not interested."

"This is for your own good," Asuna fired back. "Just open up and talk face to face."

"Actually, I prefer to keep the door closed," Ranma insisted.

"Fine, I'll tell you from here," Asuna continued. "There's a rumor that if 2-A is the worst class on exams again, we're going to be broken up. And those with the worst grades overall could get sent all the way back to kindergarten to start school over."

That was stupid. Who would actually believe someone would do something like that? Then again, if it was Dean Konoemon behind it, Ranma couldn't completely discount it. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to do just a bit more studying than she'd planned.

"We'll I guess **you** more than anyone should get to work then instead of coming to my door and bothering me," Ranma responded.

"If you want to be like that, maybe I shouldn't even tell you this," Asuna said huffily. "But for the sake of the class you should know that there's supposed to be a book deep in Library Island that will make you smarter just reading it. Those of us dragging the class down are going on an expedition to find it tonight."

A magic book that made you smarter? It would be nice to be able to skip studying completely without getting stuck with extra classes. Still, Ranma wasn't about to start playing with random magic books based on rumor. There was no telling what could go wrong.

On the other hand Asuna and her group were probably going to try the thing no matter what she said, so Ranma could just see how it went for them and decide if she wanted to risk it after that. Of course, that didn't mean Ranma had to go with them to get it.

"Well, you can let me know how it goes for you with the book, but I'll be staying here tonight."

"And why should we share it with you if you're going to be so selfish?" Asuna complained. "It wouldn't kill you to drop the attitude for one night and actually help out your classmates."

"Asuna, we shouldn't try to force her if she doesn't want to go," Honya said from the other side of the door. "It's going to be dangerous, so we shouldn't take anyone that doesn't really want to be there."

"Dangerous?" Ranma asked curiously. "How is a library supposed to be dangerous?"

"The part of the library the book is in is filled with all sorts of traps," Honya answered. "Middle school students aren't even allowed in it. If you're not careful, you could lose your life."

Why had no one ever told her about that before? If the traps were even half decent, it could make for some good training. Help keep her sharp and all that.

"Honya, don't make such a big deal about the traps," Asuna whispered, but nearly quiet enough to avoid the enhanced hearing her ears gave her, invisible or not. "You're just going to scare her off."

Oh, no! She wasn't going to get away with that. Ranma marched over the door and flung it open. "Let's get one thing straight, I'm not afraid of traps, your stupid magic book, or even cats. I just don't want to go."

Asuna looked completely confused, while Honya actually cowered behind her a bit. But Asuna's confusion soon turned to a smirk.

"I don't know," she said. "You may say you're not afraid, but when you refuse to leave your room like this, it kind of makes people wonder."

Asuna's acting was so over the top that it was pretty obvious to Ranma she was being played here. But the sad thing was it was working pretty well anyway. She'd practically had her bravery challenged here and didn't like the idea of Asuna being able to call her a coward. Would it really be that bad to make one tiny little exception on her policy? After all, trekking through a forbidden building full of traps while looking for treasure wasn't even the slightest bit girly.

It was a tough call, but if she approached it the right way she could probably avoid any annoying follow-up to tonight. If not, she'd just squash any attempts to make friends after the fact.

"Okay, but I'm not doing this to help anyone out," she declared firmly. "I'm only coming for my own self-interest and to prove that I'm not afraid of any library."

"Good enough," Asuna answered. "Now get anything you need for the trip, because we're leaving as soon as we can."

* * *

Negi had been surprised to be dragged out here to Library Island in his pajamas as he'd been getting ready for bed. But that wasn't nearly as shocking as that arrow that had nearly gotten him just for trying to pull a book from a shelf. If he'd known he'd be coming to a place this dangerous, he'd never have put that three day seal on his magic.

"I can't believe after all her talk Ranma didn't even show," Asuna complained loudly.

"Eh, Ranma was supposed to come too?" Negi asked. It was a shame that she hadn't, but he shouldn't be surprised Asuna had failed considering how little success he'd had on that front.

"Oh, if it's Ranma, she's probably the one that's been following us this whole time," Kaede informed them, getting shocked cries from several of the other self-proclaimed Baka Rangers.

"I didn't notice her at all," Ku Fei declared.

"We know you're there, Ranma," Makie then called out behind them. "Why don't you come out?"

The pony-tailed girl then walked out from behind a bookcase, approaching the group a bit sullenly, but Negi wanted to act quickly to make sure she felt welcome.

"I'm so glad you actually joined us," Negi told her cheerfully. "You'll see that it can be a lot of fun to do things together with your friends."

"Don't make me change my mind," Ranma grumbled. "Now where exactly is that book?"

Yue then pulled out a map and held it open so that everyone could see. "If we go down to basement floor 11 and head through this underground passage, we should reach the book."

"Great, I'll go on ahead then and meet you there," Ranma told them, turning immediately and dashing off.

"Wait!" Makie called out, running after her. "Don't go off on your own. It's dangerous."

"Yes, it's best to stay together," Negi yelled, trying to follow as well.

His concern then turned to outright fear as he saw the floor under Makie drop away, leaving her in open air over a potentially deadly drop. And that wasn't the end of their problems, as at the same time the floor under his own feet pressed in about an inch and a giant bookshelf from above came falling straight at his head. Negi should have put a stop to this, now he was going to get both himself and one his students killed.

Only before it could hit, Ku Fei kicked the bookshelf away, while Kaede gathered up all the books still falling toward him at an unbelievable speed, leaving him completely unscratched. Without the distraction of getting squashed himself, Negi turned his attention back to Makie, who he found safely dangling from gymnastics ribbon that she'd managed to catch on a beam above her head.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked, looking around to make sure no one else had gotten caught in any traps. Everything seemed quiet on that front. Negi even thought for a moment that Ranma might rejoin them, as she'd stopped to watch everything that had just happened, but when he looked her way, she just turned around and ran off again, leaping a ten foot gap in bookshelves making up the floor like it was nothing and running off into the distance.

"Don't worry," Ku Fei told him. "We may be bad at studying, but we're great at PE."

"We'll all be fine," Kaede agree.

Just who were these people? Negi had just witnessed four of his students performing physical feats he wouldn't have expected to have seen from Olympic athletes.

"I'm sure Ranma can take care of herself too," Konoka chimed in.

"What's with that girl?" Asuna asked in a huff as she watched Ranma disappear off into the distance. "Even when you finally get her to do something, she still has to run off on her own."

That was a sad notion, but despite Konoka's words he was more worried about her physical safety at the moment. Even so, without his magic, he'd just have to focus on the students with him and hope for the best.

* * *

It was nice to see that the traps hadn't been a lie, and now that Ranma had seen the other students were plenty capable of taking care of themselves, she was even more determined to do a bit of exploring on her own. Moving in the general direction of their goal, Ranma meandered all over the place deliberately setting off whatever traps she could. Overall though, it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Nearly all the traps were pretty lame. Pit traps and falling bookshelves wouldn't do any real harm to her even if she were slow to get hit by them. The occasional arrow at least posed some threat on that front, but weren't exactly fired at lightning speed.

This place would probably be dangerous enough for your random student, but the traps just weren't made for a martial artist of her caliber. Hoping to get at least a little bit of real training out of this, Ranma decided to up the challenge on her own, navigating the place with her eyes closed and depending on her hearing and danger sense to avoid traps. That really did help a lot, especially since she had to avoid traps without having a clear picture of where the floor was, leading to a couple long drops when she'd messed up.

Again, the falls weren't actually that dangerous, but it did lead to one time where a whole barrage of arrows came for her while she was falling. It had been a close call as she'd had to twist and dodge on the way down, and if midair combat wasn't something of a specialty, it could probably would have gone very poorly. Overall, it had made for the most entertaining part of the experience. Eventually though, she figured she'd better catch up to the other students and find this book of theirs.

Ranma was a little worried she'd have trouble finding this underground passage, but she quickly came upon a trail that was easily visible through all the dust. Looked like the rest of them had already gone on ahead. Coming to a crawl space Ranma could just see someone climbing up out on the other end. Good. She wasn't too far behind. She heard some talking up ahead, something about a book that Negi seemed pretty excited about, but their words became clearer as she closed in on the exit.

"But where's Ranma?" Negi asked. "She went on ahead, but I don't see her anywhere."

"She probably just got lost," Asuna answered.

"Still, maybe we should go back and look for her," Konoka suggested.

"Yes, making sure everyone gets back safely is our top priority," Negi told them.

"Hey, no need to worry about me," Ranma called out, finally reaching the end and sticking her head out. "I can handle anything this place can throw at me."

"Ah, Ranma, you're okay," Makie cheered.

"Yes, we're glad you're not hurt, but please do stick with us the rest of the way so we're not worried about you," Negi told her.

"No promises, Negi-sensei," she said with a shrug, as she took a good look around her. There was a book up on a dais of some sort. On either side of it stood a very large statue of some kind of armored soldier. Also, she could just make out some kind of faint sound.

"I hear something from the right statue," she announced.

She could actually see the rest of the group straining to hear something themselves.

"Are you sure?" Kaede asked.

"I don't hear anything, aru," Ku Fei added.

"I'm certain," she answered as she stepped closer, trying to better make it out. "Don't ever doubt my ears."

Was that breathing?

"We can worry about that later," Asuna insisted. "The book is right there. Let's go get it."

With that, most of the group raced off to try to be the first to the book, only the have the small bridge they were walking on fold away, dropping them board of some sort with the Japanese letters on it.

"Is this Twister?" Makie asked.

The two statues then turned toward them, with the one she'd heard breathing from speaking. "If you want this book, you'll have to answer my questions first. Ho ho ho."

Ranma recognized that voice immediately. What exactly did the dean think he was pulling? Hopping over the board game, she then jumped up onto the statue's shoulder.

"Why don't I just pound you into gravel and take the book by force?" Ranma asked him.

"Because if you don't play along I might stop being so easygoing about you skipping our lessons," he answered in a low whisper, putting a quick damper on Ranma's enthusiasm. Manipulative old geezer.

"Ranma, we don't want to fight the golem if we don't have to," Negi shouted at her. "Just play the game."

"Fine," Ranma answered hopping down. "I'll let this play out."

Ranma was only going to take this playing along thing so far though, leaving the rest of his classmates to contort themselves while translating English vocabulary. When Dean Konoemon announced it was the final question it was clear that no one would be able to reach the last character from their position. Sighing, Ranma decided he could at least go stand on that spot just to finish this so they could get out of here.

"I've got this," Asuna insisted, confusing Ranma as there was no way she'd be able to reach. Only she put her foot down on what was clearly the wrong character.

"Wrong!" the dean quickly yelled, having his golem smash its giant mallet right at Ranma's head. Ranma leaped out of the way, only to find the floor of her landing spot crumbling away from the force of the attack, leaving her to join the rest of the group in falling into the pit beneath them. She vowed she'd get even with the old fool as they all splashed down into the water below.

* * *

Negi was still marveling at the Deep Library, as Yue had called it, that they'd found themselves in. The whole place was strange. Not only were there plenty of textbooks among the other reading material, but even a kitchen with food supplied. At that point Ranma came back from the scouting she'd left to do.

"I didn't find any easy way out," she told them. "But I could probably climb back to the top and go for help."

Looking at the giant cavern they were in, it had be hundreds of feet back up, and if she fell during the climb, there was no guarantee she'd land in water this time. There was no way Negi could let her do that.

"No, no!" he said forcefully waving his arms. "I'm sure we'll be able to get out of here soon." In the worst case scenario, he could use his magic to fly them out in two more days when the seals wore off. "We should just stick to studying for now. If we study hard starting immediately, we'll be fine even without a magic book."

"Studying," Ranma groaned. "Don't we do enough of that in school?"

Negi was tempted to let her off the hook to try to keep building a good relationship, but his job was on the line this time. "Don't forget that you'll be missing classes today. If you participate in the group study, I'll take care of the attendance issue and you won't have to make up any work."

"Fine," Ranma agreed reluctantly.

Negi was quickly able to set up a small make-shift classroom and begin lessons. Being able to focus his efforts directly on such a small group was really paying off too, and even Asuna made solid progress during the day. It was good that the studying was going so well, but that was the only progress he'd made. Negi had tried tricks like breaking into smaller groups for exercises, but Ranma stayed aloof and uncooperative about it. Then as soon as Negi stopped the lessons, she ran off on her own.

He was beginning to doubt anything he tried would work.

* * *

Negi was now officially even more of a busybody than Takahata-sensei. The kid was getting more and more pushy about fitting in with her classmates. Maybe it would be for the best if the class was broken up, just because she might get another teacher. For now though, she should just focus on finding a way to get them out of here. Dean Konoemon wouldn't want to leave them here to rot, so there had to be some sort of escape plan. So she'd been spending her time since their study session ended searching for any hidden exit.

Sure enough, tucked away behind a waterfall she found a door conveniently labeled as an emergency exit. Ranma was about to investigate further when she heard a loud noise off back where everyone was staying. The door could wait for now. First thing first; she wanted to investigate what that was. Rushing back, she found the dean and his golem had made another appearance, and if her eyes didn't deceive her, that was the book he'd been guarding in Makie's hands.

"You won't get away from here with that!" Dean Konoemon yelled out, right before Ranma sent a flying kick into the back of the golem's head, causing it to stagger forward and fall to its hands and knees.

"There's an exit behind the waterfall over there," Ranma pointed out. "I'll hold the golem off while you make a run for it."

"We can't leave you behind," Negi insisted.

"Don't be stupid," Ranma told them as the golem got back to its feet. "I'll be right behind you. And the sooner you're out of here, the less time I need to spend fighting this thing."

Not that Ranma was terribly concerned about that, but she hoped that line would get them to scram. Ranma badly wanted a one-on-one with this thing.

"Let's do what she says, Negi-sensei," Asuna told him. "She can defend herself against that thing a lot better than you can right now."

"Alright," Negi agreed, "but don't push your luck. Follow us as soon as you can."

With the group running off, Ranma charged back at the golem, slamming her entire body into its left leg, knocking it back and leaving it standing on one foot. She then continued her forward motion until she'd passed under it before pivoting quickly and leaping back the other way. She kicked it flat in the back, and with its precarious balance if fell quickly enough this time it didn't even have a chance to catch itself, ending up flat on its stomach.

Not willing to leave it at that, Ranma went up to the head and started punching and kicking at it all over, probing for some weakness in the thick armor.

"Ow, ow," she heard Konoemon complain. "This is abuse of the elderly. Run off with the rest of them so I can finish this properly."

"Sorry, Dean Konoemon," she answered, not even slowing her blows. "You're the one that told me to play along. It wouldn't be very convincing if I held back now, would it?"

Ranma had a lot of frustrations regarding the old man, and he'd just about handed her the perfect opportunity to work some of them out without getting in trouble for it. She wasn't about to walk away from that just yet. So Ranma went to work fighting the thing, taking every chance she got to thrash it, hitting any spot she could and hoping to break the thing apart. The golem was surprisingly fast for its size, but if she stayed focused, it wasn't too hard to avoid.

The biggest problem was doing any real damage to it. The thing might even be harder than the solid rock it appeared to be, and nothing she was trying seemed to do any lasting harm. At least she got the occasional protest from the dean to make it clear that he wasn't enjoying the bumpy ride.

"I'm not going to let you hold me here all day," the dean said a few minutes into their fight. "If you're not going to relent, I'll have to get a little serious."

Ranma took a step back, getting a sense that this was more than just talk, and something was different now. Still, while she would have preferred not to use this, there was one more trick it looked like she'd be able to get off even if the golem was going to be tougher now.

"Before that, can you do one thing for me?" Ranma asked.

"Oh, and what's that?"

"Just keep letting me distract you," Ranma answered, right before Ku Fei sent a kick flying into the Golem's back, sending it sprawling to its knees again. The old man really needed to learn to watch out for surprise attacks.

"You're supposed to be running for the exit with the others," Ranma told her.

"You were taking too long, and we weren't going to leave you behind," she answered. "So I came back to get you."

"I'm fine here, thanks," Ranma said, not wanting to give up her punching bag even if it might get rough from here on.

"I'm not going back without you, aru," Ku Fei insisted.

Ranma chuckled a bit to herself. They really were the Baka Rangers. They just didn't know when to give up. Ranma didn't actually think they'd come back for her. Ah well. Looked like her fun was over. Ku Fei was determined to be stubborn about this, and it just wouldn't feel the same two against one. "Fine, let's get out of here."

Leaving the golem behind, they raced toward the exit, slipping behind the waterfall and through the door. Ranma was surprised to see a giant spiral staircase going all along the outside wall of the large tower. It continued up far into the distance. The two started running up the stairs making it a short distance before the golem smashed through the wall beginning to move up the stairs itself. Looked like Konoemon wanted to ham it up to the end.

The two of them made a couple circuits of the stairs before Ranma got bored of it. It would take too long to get to the top at this rate. Time for a shortcut. Glancing up, she leaped the thirty feet or so to the next level up on the stairs, grabbing the edge and flipping herself over to the topside of it before doing the same thing to continue the climb. After repeating a few times, she found herself in the middle of the rest of the group. Giving them a quick salute, she continued on ahead of them.

"Impressive," she heard Kaede say from below.

"Don't be praising her," Asuna complained. "She finally went and did something cool back there with the buying us time thing, and now she's running off on her own and leaving us to the golem."

The rest of the conversation slowly faded as Ranma continued to speed her way up the stairs. They could think what they liked. Probably better this way instead of giving them ideas that they owed her or something. Not like the dean would actually hurt them. Anyway, at her pace she soon reached the top, finding an elevator which took her to the ground floor and out this crazy labyrinth of a library.

Ranma was tempted to just run back to her room and forget about this whole thing, but she decided to wait around and see exactly what happened with that book. It was a boring wait, but eventually she heard the elevator descend, and soon enough it came back up, but Ranma was in for a surprise when the door actually opened. All the girls but Kaede were now topless, with nothing but their arms to keep them from flashing their chests at anyone that might want to look. There was no sign of their uniforms either. It went against her policy of not getting involved, but Ranma couldn't help but ask.

"Just what were you guys up to that led to this?" Ranma asked.

"It's not our fault," Asuna said quickly. "We overloaded the elevator. And you have a lot of nerve showing your face after you ran off and left us. Looks like in the end you got scared after all."

"Hey, I wasn't scared," Ranma protested. "It's not like he would have hurt you anyway."

"He was a giant golem that was trying to crush us," Asuna fired back. "Of course he would have hurt us."

"Actually, I think Ranma is right," Konoka chimed in. "I'm pretty certain that was my grandpa's voice."

"The dean?" Asuna asked in surprise.

"I knew he sounded familiar," Negi declared. "And the setting in the Deep Library was just a little too convenient. He must have set this all up to help you study."

"Wait a minute," Makie said. "You mean to tell me the Dean had a giant golem robot built and had it attack us to get us to improve our test grades? That's insane!"

"Grandpa can get a bit carried away," Konoka admitted.

"Does that mean the book was fake, aru?" Ku Fei asked. "Then I don't feel so bad about leaving it behind."

They left the book behind? Well, it probably was fake, come to think of it. Still, no more reason to stick around here.

"I'm heading back," Ranma announced. "If you get the urge to do something like this again, don't invite me."

Ranma then ran off without letting them protest. Honestly, the little excursion hadn't been half bad. Traps, exploring secret chambers, and getting to try your training against a golem? There was plenty to like in there. Still, wouldn't do to let them get any ideas. Soon, she was back to the dorms and safe inside her Baka Ranger free room.

"Ah, you're back," Chao declared, looking up from some papers she was reading on her bed.

"Yeah," Ranma said simply.

"So tell me, would you at all be open to doing me a favor?" Chao asked her.

"I'd prefer not to," Ranma answered simply.

"Still too soon, huh?" Chao asked. "Well, let me know when that changes. I have something I'd like to discuss with you then."

Ranma hadn't expected her simple reply to actually stop Chao from even saying what the favor was, but her roommate had never been predictable. It may have been an odd little conversation, but that was nothing for someone who often claimed to be a Martian. Well, Ranma had no shortage of exercise today, so she may as well turn in early so she wouldn't be tired for the test tomorrow. She could try to puzzle out the oddity that was Chao Lingshen another day.

* * *

Negi had been thrilled that not only had the class not been the worst in the school, they'd somehow managed to make it all the way to the top of the rankings. Then he'd been officially recognized as a teacher. Still, back in his room now, Negi was starting to come down from that high, as there was one thing that was still really bothering him.

"What's got you down?" Asuna asked, having caught on to his mood. "Shouldn't you be happy about how things went?"

"I know," Negi answered. "It's just Ranma. I was hoping with her coming along that we'd finally get through to her. But even after everything that happened, she just ran off the first chance she got. Nothing I try is working."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. The fact Ranma even came at all was practically a miracle itself. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure we got more real conversation out of her in those two days than I've seen from her in the entire rest of the year before you showed up. Whether she realizes it or not, I think you may be getting through to her."

"Really?" Negi said hopefully, getting a nod from Asuna. "Thanks for letting me know. You've been really nice to me lately."

"Hey, cut it out brat, it wasn't for your sake," she sputtered to tell him. "It's just that if you were still down in the dumps like that when Konoka got back, she'd blame me and I'd never hear the end of it. That's all it was."

Negi really was grateful to Asuna for her encouragement. He hadn't known Ranma very long, so it would have been easy to miss any changes. Not to mention, she might be a lot like Asuna and just say mean things to hide how she really felt. So Negi wouldn't give up. He'd just try even harder. He just needed to think over what to do next. As he was walking around trying to think of something, a package sitting the on the table caught his eye.

"Oh yeah, that came for you earlier," Asuna told him as he walked over to look at it.

"This is from Nee-san," Negi said excitedly after reading the label. Tearing it open, he pulled out a book, his excitement growing as he read the cover. "This is the book I asked her to send me. It's exactly what I need."

Flipping through it, he found the page he wanted. The timing couldn't have been better. "Asuna, do you know where Ranma's room is?"

"Yeah, why?" she asked.

"You'll see soon enough, just hurry and show me," he told her impatiently.

"Fine, fine," Asuna said, getting up and heading to the door.

Slipping a piece of a paper into the book to mark his spot, he left it behind and followed after her. Down the hallway, they came to a door which Asuna knocked on. It quickly opened to reveal a different classmate, as Chao Lingshen stood there.

"What can I do for you, Negi-sensei?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, but is Ranma here?" he asked.

"You're in luck," she answered. "And I do mean that. You won't normally find her hanging around here during the day."

"I don't know if it's his good luck or my bad luck," Ranma announced, taking Chao's place at the door. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to thank you for all the hard work you put in for the test," he told her. "You got your grade all the way up to an 81, and without the effort you and your classmates put in to improve, I wouldn't be an official teacher right now."

"Great. Is that all?" Ranma asked.

"No, I wanted to more than just say thank you," he continued. "I learned a good luck charm I want to use on you."

"Say it if you like, doesn't matter to me either way," Ranma told him. "But can you hurry it up?"

"Um, actually could you come back to my room?" Negi asked. "I left the book on it back there."

Not to mention the fact that even if he was going to pass it off as a good luck charm the fewer people he'd have to fool the better. So he shouldn't do this in front of an outsider like Chao.

"In that case I'll pass," Ranma said. "I was about to head out, and I'd rather not take any detours."

Negi's face fell, but before he could try to convince Ranma, Asuna jumped into the conversation. "You have no idea how enthusiastic he was about doing this for you," Asuna told him. "I don't think he's ever going to stop pestering you until you let him, so you may as well get it out of the way. Besides, it's just down the hall."

"I'll make you a deal," Ranma said. "Promise to leave me alone over spring break and I'll come along."

"Deal," Negi quickly answered, grabbing her hand and shaking it, afraid she might take back the offer. "This way." Negi hurried on ahead as Asuna and Ranma followed, quickly making his way back to their room and entering

"Why are you following us in?" Ranma asked Asuna.

"Because it's my room too," she told him.

"You share a room?" Ranma asked in surprise. "No, actually forget that question. I don't really care."

Meanwhile, Negi had grabbed the book and his staff, reading it over one last time as Asuna shut the door behind them. Pointing his staff at Ranma he began chanting the spell.

"What are you doing?" Ranma asked, looking panicked as she backed up, her retreat stopped by the recently closed door.

But Negi didn't stop, quickly finishing the chant. It's one he'd learned over a year ago hoping to cure the petrification from the people in the village. Of course its ability to dispel magic wasn't nearly strong enough, and had all but forgotten about it until now, which was why he needed the book to remind him exactly how it went. He only hoped it was capable of curing whatever was wrong with Ranma.

Negi wasn't expecting there to be any visible sign even if it did work, but as soon as he finished chanting, there was a small flash of light, followed by Negi realizing that there were very noticeable changes to Ranma. It was hard to miss those cat ears and tail. Even her eyes, while still blue, had a very cat-like shape to the irises. What on earth had just happened?

"Where exactly do you get off casting a spell at me out of the blue like that?" Ranma then asked approaching angrily. "And being a ten-year-old teacher isn't enough for you, you have to be a mage too? I suppose the staff should have made me suspicious."

"Oh, you know that much about magic?" Negi asked excitedly, glad to at least have one more person he could talk openly with.

"Can you two please focus on the real issue here," Asuna protested. "Like why on earth did you turn Ranma into a cat-girl?"

"Turn me into a what?" Ranma asked, grabbing her tail and holding it out to look at it. "You dispelled the illusion?! Why would you do something like that?!"

Oh, an illusion. That made a lot of sense. He couldn't imagine how the spell he'd just cast would have done that to Ranma. He wanted to question her further, but the door chose that moment to open, letting Konoka in at a very inopportune time.

"Oh, hello Ranma," she said as she took in the sight in front of her. "I didn't know you were into cosplay."

"Yes, cosplay," Negi quickly said, trying to cover up the magical nature of recent events. "I had no idea either."

"Wow, it looks so real." Konoka commented. "Can I see how it's done?"

Ranma got a deer in headlights look on her face as Konoka approached, turning suddenly to race for the window, throwing it open and leaping out.

"We're on the fifth floor!" Asuna protested as they all ran over to see if she was okay.

But Ranma was already up and running off, not looking the least bit injured.

"Ranma really is amazing at jumping," Konoka noted, and remembering back to library, Negi couldn't help but agree. "Do you think she practiced it as part of her cat-person cosplay?"

Negi was glad that Konoka was so quick to believe that's all it was, but he still wasn't sure how to explain why she would be doing cosplay in their room to begin with. Thankfully, he didn't have to explain just yet, as Asuna grabbed his wrist and started dragging him out the door.

"I need to talk to you, now," she told him as she continued to pull him down the hall a way. Looking around to make sure there was no one in sight, she continued in a hushed tone. "If that was an illusion does that mean Ranma really is a cat-girl? Is that even possible?"

"Yes, there are a race of people like that," Negi answered. "I just wasn't aware any of them lived outside the magic world. It came as quite a shock to me. I just hope that my spell also got rid of the curse."

"No, I don't think there really is a curse," Asuna told him. "Didn't you see how she freaked out when we saw her like that? You probably misunderstood what she said and it was more like 'why am I cursed to be born like this?' You were right all along, and she was keeping people away so they wouldn't find out her secret."

"Don't you think it's a little extreme for something like that?" Negi asked. "It's not that big of a deal."

"I don't know how it is in magic circles, but it's a big deal for normal people," Asuna explained. "If this was like a movie and they found out, there'd be scientists saying 'we need to dissect her to find out what she is.'"

"What, but she's out there like that now," Negi said, suddenly terrified. "What if she gets seen?"

"Wait, wait, that's just the movies. I don't know if they'd actually do that. I'm just saying she has reasons to be worried."

"Well, at the very least we should try to help keep her secret, since it is my fault in the first place," Negi told her. "You don't think Konoka will tell anyone else about what happened, do you?"

"Er, um, we should probably talk to her about that," Asuna admitted, as the two of them looked back to see Konoka had stepped out of the room back down the hall and was now talking to the rest of the library expedition club.

"And when I walked in, I saw Ranma cosplaying," she told them.

"No way!" Haruna asked in surprise. "What was she wearing?"

"A cat-girl outfit," she answered. "It was really good too. She even had those special contacts."

"Er, it might be a little late to stop it now," Asuna said weakly.

Well, at least it wasn't Ranma's actual secret that was out. Negi just hoped Ranma wouldn't be _too _upset about this.

* * *

Ever since she'd disappeared for a couple of days, leaving her at her wits end, Setsuna had been keeping a much closer eye on Konoka, barely letting her out of her sight. She was worried that all of this might lead to someone noticing her stalking, so she'd panicked a bit when the door opened again so soon after Konoka had entered her room. Setsuna had barely made it around the corner down the hall before Asuna and Negi-sensei came out.

She was just about to bolt again as they walked closer when they stopped and began discussing Ranma. Learning Ranma's secret had certainly been a revelation. Setsuna had always felt there was something different about Ranma, and now she knew exactly what it was. She could certainly empathize with the demi-human girl. Setsuna knew exactly how it felt to be an outcast because you weren't human. Trying to hide that fact and fit in was a real struggle.

And if it was an illusion, Ranma probably couldn't even hide her non-human physiology the same way Setsuna could hide her wings. Ranma's behavior made a lot more sense in that context. Sadly, Setsuna realized that even she herself had been a bit harsh on Ranma in the past, putting everything down to just a bad personality. Well, she might not be able to do much, but she could at least be more understanding from here on out.

* * *

Ranma was pretty sure she'd made it to the dean's office without anyone else seeing her. There wasn't much she could do about Negi and Asuna knowing about the illusion, but they were obviously in the know about magic to begin with. At least Konoka has passed it off as cosplay. Not that her thinking that was a great idea, but as much as Dean Konoemon seemed determined to keep her in the dark regarding magic, Ranma was glad she hadn't blown that secret. She did not want to see how the dean would react to that.

"Why didn't you tell me my teacher was a mage," Ranma complained, as the dean finished putting the illusion back up. Ranma had explained what had happened to her, and wasn't too pleased to be caught off guard like that.

"That is odd. I was sure I was planning to say something during one of your lessons," he replied. "Tell me, how many of them have you shown up for since he arrived?"

"Er, well, I guess I can let you off the hook for this one," Ranma said weakly.

"And you know, with the right training, you could replace the illusion yourself if something like this happened again," he continued. "I've got some time free now if you're available."

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary," Ranma told him meekly hoping to get out of here quickly. "I'll just be more careful from now on."

"No, I insist," he declared. "After all, I haven't got a chance to thank you for participating so … enthusiastically in my little game. In fact, spring break is just around the corner, so we'll have plenty of time for extra sessions."

Ranma gave up trying to talk her way out of this and made a run for the door, only to see it slam shut on its own. Turning instead for the window, she saw it already shutting as well.

"Now, let's review what we went over last time," Konoemon began.

* * *

It was the final day of the school year, and Chisame sat in the classroom, once again silently ranting about the overly weird class they were in. And now that 10-year-old brat was an official teacher? So they were going to be stuck with him next year too? What happened to her normal school life? Ranma then walked in, making her the last member of the class to return from the ceremony.

"I'm so glad you're here and … like that," Negi said excitedly when he spotted her. "I'm … uh … sorry for the other day."

Ranma just ignored him and walked back to her seat. The girl's unfriendly behavior may make her unpopular, but considering the state of the class, wouldn't any sane person want to avoid them? She was easily one of the most normal people in the class as far as Chisame was concerned. Even better, as long as Ranma was so vocally anti-social, the teachers focused all their attention on her and let Chisame more quietly avoid her classmates. She'd hate it if Negi had been pestering her like he had been Ranma since he'd shown up.

Only today, it looked as if more people than just Negi had something they wanted to say to Ranma, as a small crowd was forming around her desk, all firing off questions so fast Chisame could barely understand half of what was being said.

"Are you really into cosplay?" "Did you buy the cat-girl outfit or did you make it yourself?" "Do you have any pictures?" "Can you dress up for the class?" "How did you keep such a big scoop like this secret from me for so long?"

And the questions went on and on despite Ranma's panicked look and lack of answers. Chisame never would have guessed they shared a hobby as well as an outlook on the class. Cat-girl, huh? She could definitely see that. Ranma had the cute look needed to really pull something like that off. Wouldn't even need the touching up Chisame did to her own images. Still, letting the class find out was an amateur mistake. That's why Chisame never dressed up outside her own room. She felt sorry for the girl, but she was going to have to live with her slip-up.

"Back off," Setsuna demanded, forcing her way into the crowd and doing her best to push people away. "Can't you see she doesn't want to talk about it? Just leave her alone."

"Since when are you friends with Ranma?" Asakura asked.

"I'm not," Setsuna quickly answered. "I just don't like watching the class treat someone like that."

It was pretty crazy at that. What sort of class descended like vultures on a student over a little bit of gossip? And of course their child teacher hadn't been able to keep order at all. If anything, his being here just added to the chaos that went on in their class. As seen when Negi's students suggested a party in his honor as soon as they'd been torn away from Ranma. Chisame just couldn't take any more of this today.

"I feel sick to my stomach," she announced. "I'm going back to the dorms."

Hurrying out, she was only a few strides out of the school when Negi came running up behind her trying to offer medicine for the upset stomach. The idiot hadn't even realized she'd been lying about that. He then followed her all the way back to the dorms, so she wasn't able to lose him until she was safe in her room. Needing to cool off, she quickly got fully into costume, logging on to her website and typing away.

"Something horrible happened today," she wrote. "We've got some pervert teaching the class. He had a girl in class practically in tears and Chiu is afraid he'll go after her next."

Chisame watched with glee as the replies started pouring in, offering support. This was exactly what she needed. Moving on, she started taking pictures of her latest outfits, finishing off with a great bunny-girl costume she'd recently made. Getting back on the computer, she worked her magic and touched up all the images until even a somewhat plain girl like her could look like an idol. Which was why she was the top net idol in the world.

And she wasn't going to slip up like Ranma and let her extracurricular activities get out. Feeling very proud of herself she turned around, only to almost die in shock from seeing Negi standing right there looking at her.

"I'm sorry, but the door was open, so I let myself in," he exclaimed.

Chisame quickly put her glasses back on, but it was far too late for that to be enough to hide anything.

"Wow, this is amazing," Negi said as he looked over the pictures on her screen.

Of course it was. She wouldn't have made her way to the top if it wasn't. But she needed to get rid of the brat now. She'd seen what had happened to Ranma earlier today when she'd been outed, and there was no way Chisame was letting the same thing happen to her. She was just thinking over whether she'd be able to get away with murdering him and hiding his body when he pulled the glasses off her face.

"Wow, you really are pretty even without the changes," he declared, making her blush despite herself.

Just what did this brat think he was saying? He was only ten, for crying out loud. Worse yet, he then took off out of her room still holding her glasses.

"Give those back," she ordered, running after him. They were already out of the dorms and halfway back to the school before he finally stopped, allowing her catch up but still dodging any attempts to her grab back her glasses.

"Come to the party," he suggested. "The weather is great and it will be a lot of fun."

"I hate parties, go back to bothering Ranma," Chisame told him. "I'm sure she plans to skip too."

"Actually, I sort of promised to leave her alone over spring break," he said.

"Great, so without your pet project you have to fall back on me," Chisame muttered, turning back to the dorms. "Well I'm going home."

But she wasn't able to make any progress, as Negi had already grabbed her by the wrist and was now pulling her in the other direction. She tried to pull away from him but couldn't manage, and he was still dragging her along despite her efforts to stop him. How was a kid like this so strong anyway?

"I'll go already. I'll go," she finally said as she saw them approaching where the rest of the class was setting up outside for the party. "Just let me change first."

But Negi didn't slow in the least, and she soon found herself right in the middle of her classmates, still in her bunny-girl costume.

"Who is that? Negi-sensei's secret girlfriend?" she heard someone ask.

"Wait," Asuna said. "Is that Hasegawa?"

No, this was the worst case scenario. They'd recognized her. Now she found herself surrounded and given much the same treatment Ranma had just received earlier.

"That's a great costume." "Did you make it yourself?" "Anyone else find it strange that the two biggest loners in the class both cosplay?" "Are you and Saotome-san secretly friend?" "Do you ever cosplay together?"

Looking over to where Negi was smiling as he watched, Chisame vowed that one day she would kill him.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I suspect there'd be a few rather happy readers if I could keep up this sort of writing pace consistently, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen. For starters, I have a lot of ideas and subplots of things I want to do, but haven't really hashed out a clear timeline of their order yet. This is was the last chapter I'm comfortable writing until I do.

On that same front I couldn't tell exactly when certain Ranma characters will show up even if I wanted to spoil it at the moment. But as devoid of them as this chapter was, they will be showing up in force sooner or later.

Until then, I've got plenty to work with just with the large cast of Negima characters.


	4. Vampire Hunting

It was late as Ranma walked home from her final spring break lesson with Konoemon. She never thought she'd be glad school was starting up again, but at least there she'd be safe from the dean's clutches. Of course it wouldn't all be fun and games, as there were other issues she'd been putting off. Hopefully spring break had been enough for the class's attention span to turn away from her supposed cosplaying, because Ranma did not want to ever be mobbed like that again.

On the other hand, she did need to deal with Negi being a mage and what he was trying to do when he'd dispelled the illusion. The child teacher had kept his word about leaving her alone during break, and Ranma hadn't gone to him, but she still wanted to address them sooner or later.

That said, she'd be waiting at least one more day to find any of that out. First day of the school year was always the health exams, so Ranma would be skipping. Not just to avoid a reminder of how girly her body was becoming either. Even if that were her motivation, it'd be pretty pointless. The ever-growing discomfort of her chest bindings made that nearly impossible to forget. No, it was a simple matter of keeping her disguise, which was why she never got in trouble for skipping out on this particular day.

It was a lot more difficult to hide a tail when you were bunched in tightly with other girls while they measured and prodded you. And there was the clothing issue too. Even if she did like gym, rushing off first and speed changing, there'd be no locker to safely stuff her clothes in. This was important because once they were off her, the illusion would no longer keep anyone from noticing the hole she threaded her tail through.

Long story short, it was a big enough risk she was actually able to get Takahata and Konoemon to let her skip it whenever it came up. And since she still had no school tomorrow, there wasn't any pressing need to head home just yet. Ranma could get some exercise after all the magic related bookwork. Ranma was thinking over what to start with when she heard a scream not that far off. Checking that out would be as good a place to start as any, she supposed.

Hurrying to the source of the sound, she saw a cloaked figure kneeling over a Makie. Her classmate wasn't moving, but he was close enough to hear two sets of breathing, and both of them sounded fine. The cloaked figure then turned to him, revealing that she too was a classmate.

"Looks like I get dessert too," Evangeline told her standing up and running toward Ranma.

Ranma was a little confused about what was going on, but she could see some rather sharp fangs on the girl that were still dripping what looked like it might be blood. Not about to just let Evangeline do whatever she wanted to do, but not wanting to seriously hurt her until he knew just what this was, she simply dodged out of the way and gave her a simple shove, watching her stumble past.

"A little help here," Evangeline called out, as Ranma heard someone land behind her, turning to see Chachamaru. The robot. No wonder she hadn't realized anyone else was around. No breathing to give herself away.

Her mechanical classmate was now reaching out to restrain Ranma, who was starting to get more than a little annoyed by whatever they were trying to do. Ducking under the grasping arms, Ranma swept the legs out from under her before dancing away, only to have to jump away from giant icicles heading straight for her. It was magic, Ranma realized as she tensed up. This had suddenly gotten a whole lot more serious.

"I had a feeling you weren't normal," Evangeline told him. "I suppose they sent you to keep an eye on me."

Keep an eye on her? And who were 'they' supposed to be? Whatever Evangeline thought was going on, she and her robot weren't happy about it, as she was attacked by the mechanical student again, with Chachamaru trying to do more than simply restrain her this time. Chachamaru was fast too. A lot faster than she expected from a machine. Still, whoever had programmed her needed to put a little more time into martial arts if they wanted Chachamaru to be a threat to Ranma.

Evangeline was her bigger concern, so when she managed to catch Chachamaru, she tossed her to the side and sprinted toward Evangeline rather than press her assault and try to disable the robot. Dodging another set of icicles, Ranma quickly got into Evangeline's face and grabbed her arm, stopping her from throwing a potion of some sort. So far Evangeline hadn't shown any serious magic, but it still made Ranma nervous not knowing what would come next.

"Why don't you give up and tell me what this is all about?" Ranma demanded, now that she was in a position to stop her from casting any more spells.

"I'll pass on that," Evangeline answered, as she dropped the potion Ranma had just prevented her from throwing.

Ranma had release her and used instant movement to get out of there as quickly as she could before she even thought of how she could have just caught it before it hit the ground. Probably better like this anyway. Without knowing what that was, Ranma wanted nothing to do with it. Seeing it smash into the ground, a large cloud of smoke burst up from it completely hiding Evangeline from him. When it cleared, she saw Chachamaru carrying Evangeline off in the distance.

"Go crawl back to Takahata and Konoemon," she said spitefully. "Tell them I'm through playing along. I won't be trapped here any longer."

Ranma let them go, deciding she'd better make sure Makie was okay. Heading back to where she was still laying. Ranma didn't find anything wrong with her beyond a pair of puncture marks on her neck. Was Evangeline supposed to be some kind of vampire or something? Whatever she was, Ranma wasn't able to shake Makie awake, so he guessed there was nothing to do but take her to the nurse's office.

Lifting her into her arms, Ranma set off for the school building, while thinking on what had just happened. What did Takahata and the dean have to do with Evangeline? And what was that about her being trapped. Ranma supposed she should tell them what had happened. They could deal with the problem, and probably had the answers to all this. Arriving at the school, she got her chance earlier than she expected, as Takahata-sensei spotted her carrying Makie through the halls.

"What happened?" he asked.

Planning to explain everything, Ranma paused for a second first. Should she do that after all? From the way Evangeline talked, it sounded like he and the dean both knew all about Evangeline to begin with, and neither had said a word. If she let on, they may take care of whatever was happening, but what's to stop them from shoving her aside and keeping her in the dark? Like it or not, Ranma was involved now, and it would really bug her if she never knew just what it was she was involved with.

"I found Makie here collapsed outside," Ranma answered. "I was taking her to the nurse's office to make sure she was okay."

"Alright, get her to a bed," Takahata ordered her. "I'll make sure she gets medical attention."

Oh, right. This late there might not be anyone there. Well, Takahata-sensei could take care of that at least. Sure enough, the nurse's office was empty when she arrived, but Ranma left her in one the beds confident she'd get care soon enough. For now, she needed to decide what her next move was. She was new to this detective thing, but she'd think of something.

* * *

Negi had been looking forward to resuming teaching the students that now made up class 3-A. So he was a little surprised when taking roll to see four faces missing. None of Ranma, Makie, Evangeline, or Chachamaru were present.

"Does anyone know why the missing students are absent?" Negi asked, concerned there were so many gone the first day of class.

"They're all fairly flat," Fuka called out. "Maybe they're skipping because it's health exam day."

That wouldn't be so bad if that's all it was.

"Actually, I stopped by the nurse's office this morning, and Makie was resting there," Ako, the health assistant announced. "Supposedly Ranma found her collapsed in Sakura Lane last night and carried her here. The nurse said she was just anemic and she'll be fine."

"Oh, Ranma really is a nice person, after all, isn't she?" Konoka announced at that, while the rest of the class seemed to latch more onto the other news.

"The moon was pretty full last night, wasn't it?" Kakizaki Misa asked. "Do you think it was the rumored vampire that got her?"

Vampire? Negi barely heard the rest of the conversation that was going on as his mind whirled on that thought. What if there was a vampire attacking his students? Makie might be fine, but could Ranma have been attacked too after bringing her in? Had something happened to Evangeline or Chachamaru? Negi needed to find out if something was actually going on.

"Why doesn't everyone head off for the exams now?" Negi asked, deciding that would be a good chance for him to investigate.

Leaving them to that, Negi rushed off to the nurse's office to check on Makie. The girl was sleeping soundly, but Negi did sense a weak magic from her when he checked. Even worse, there were actually two puncture marks on the neck. It looked like the rumor was true. There was a vampire around. That just made him all the more worried about the three students still unaccounted for.

Running out of the school building, Negi hopped on his staff, risking a quick flight to Sakura Lane where Makie was found. Maybe there'd be some sign of what happened. Getting off his staff, Negi ran around searching the area. He wasn't even sure what he was looking for, and was starting to think he should at least check the dorms, when he spotted a figure stepping out from behind a tree.

"Over here, Negi-sensei," Evangeline called out.

"I'm so glad you're alright," Negi told the small girl as he ran over. "I was worried about you."

"You were worried about me?" she asked in confusion.

"Well, I heard about um …" he began trailing off when he realized it might be better not to talk about this.

"About the vampire?" she finished for him.

"Yeah, you know about that?" he asked in surprise.

"A lot more than you do, apparently. I can tell you more, but not here. Meet me on the other side of school tonight and I'll explain everything."

"Wait," Negi called as she started to walk off. "Do you know where Ranma or Chachamaru are?"

"They're both fine," she assured him. "Just show up tonight if you want to know the rest."

Negi was glad to hear that, but even with her assurances, he just couldn't stop worrying about his students. So he continued to search until the sun set, checking the dorms and asking around. None of his efforts paid off, and as night approached, Negi still hadn't located either of them. So he went to the meeting place instead to wait for Evangeline. He was standing there for about half an hour, beginning to worry something had happened to her too when she finally showed up.

He almost didn't realize it was her when she first approached him, as Evangeline had changed into a long black cloak and a pointy hat. With those clothes, was she a mage too?

"You actually showed up alone," she told him as she walked up. "And no sign of any activity all day. I can't imagine why, but it doesn't look like Ranma said anything."

"How is Ranma involved in this?" Negi asked. "You promised me answers."

"I did, but what answers do you want?" she asked with a smirk. "Answers about the vampire, or about your father, the Thousand Master?"

"You know about my father?!" Negi cried out in shock.

"Of course; he's the one who sealed most of my power and trapped me here. But now the blood of his son is going to let me break the curse."

"My blood?" Negi asked, putting the pieces together. "You're the vampire, aren't you?"

"Finally figured it out?" she said with a frightening smile that showed off her fangs. "I'm afraid you won't survive the loss of all the blood I'll be taking."

Negi gulped but didn't back down. He'd planned to confront the vampire to begin with, and if she knew anything about his father, then he definitely couldn't let her go without finding out more. Student or not, he was stopping Evangeline here.

* * *

The only thing Ranma had really been able to come up with for trying to figure out more was to have another run in with Evangeline. That was proving difficult, as he hadn't spotted her heading for school, and there was no sign of her during the day. Now that it was night again, Ranma figured maybe she'd catch her trying to attack another student. But even with as juicy a target as Honya made walking alone down Sakura Lane, nothing happened. Was it too much to ask that she just made herself easier to find?

Almost as soon as she thought that, Ranma saw weird lights coming from the other end of the school. Could it really be that simple? Well, it's not like she had any better leads. Maybe Evangeline was going to fulfill her request after all. So Ranma raced off in that direction, occasionally getting another bit of light to guide her. Reaching the edge of the school's roof, she saw Evangeline and Chachamaru fighting with Negi-sensei on a nearby roof. Although as she got closer, it was clear that it wasn't much of fight.

Chachamaru wasn't letting Negi get any spells off. She wasn't exactly hurting him with her interruptions, but Ranma probably would have needed to step in pretty quickly anyway if Asuna hadn't somehow found her way to fight as well and knocked both Chachamaru and Evangeline to the ground with a single kick. Well, Ranma didn't much feel like staying on the sidelines and watching, so she jumped between the two parties herself while Asuna was still yelling at the recently assaulted pair for picking on Negi.

"So what exactly is all of this about?" Ranma asked loudly, not really caring who answered her. "A vampire student fighting with a mage teacher? And what was that about being trapped that you mentioned last night?"

"So you're in the dark, huh?" Evangeline asked. "That explains why you haven't said anything. I suggest everyone here stays just as quiet if you don't want anyone else getting hurt. Now as much as I'd love pay back a pair of meddlers, I'll finish this another time. As long as Negi doesn't have a partner, it's only a matter of time until I get what I want."

Chachamaru had already picked Evangeline up and started running with the girl, but Ranma wasn't about to let them get away this time, giving quick pursuit.

"Wait!" Negi called out to her, making her stop in her tracks.

"What?" Ranma asked, worried there was some kind of magical trap or something she'd almost walked into.

"Evangeline is a vampire, and really dangerous," he told her. "You shouldn't go after her."

"A vampire?" Asuna asked. "You mean that was real?"

"I already knew that," Ranma said a little crossly, running over to the edge of the roof the pair had just jumped off but not spotting them. "Great, now I lost them."

"No, you really shouldn't chase after them," Negi insisted. "We'll figure something out, but it's good that they got away for now."

"Vampire or not, neither of them were that tough," Ranma answered, still annoyed at having been stopped for nothing. "I chased them off just fine last night, and I was going to get some answers out of them this time."

"You really took them both on?" Negi asked, a look of awe on his face. "But they were so strong."

"I'm pretty tough myself," she told him. "Now you better have some answers after making me lose them like that."

"Hey, there's no need to talk to him like that," Asuna complained. "He was just looking out for your safety. Because unlike you, he actually cares about someone other than himself."

"That's not fair," Negi quickly told Asuna. "Ranma carried Makie back to the nurse's office. And it sounds like he even fought Evangeline to protect her. Oh, and I'd like to thank you for that, Ranma. I'm sure Makie will thank you too when she gets a chance."

"It's no big deal," Ranma said a bit embarrassed at the praise. "Just because I avoid my classmates doesn't mean I want to see any of them hurt."

Asuna's anger seemed to fade at that. "Look, I'm sorry I said that. I'm just used to thinking that about you, so I snapped out of reflex. I know it must be tough on you, hiding the fact that you're not human."

"Meh," Ranma said dismissively. "I snapped at the kid, you snapped at me. Seems like a fair response to me."

"You don't need to be like that," Negi said quickly, after seeing her shove aside Asuna's apology. "At least not with us. We know you're a demi-human, and we're okay with that. We won't tell anyone, and we don't think any less of you. I'll even be your friend, if you'd like. Everyone should have at least one friend."

"I've got a suggestion too, how instead of talking about this, we worry about that vampire that's still on the lose?"

Genius or not, Negi could still lay on thick and say the sort of embarrassing things only kids could bring themselves to say. So her ten-year-old teacher thought he could be her first friend? Assuming she didn't have any and all just because she didn't want to be friends with her classmates. Well, Ranma didn't want any right now. Kaoru and the other martial artists were the closest thing she had right now and even they were barely more than acquaintances.

"She says she's been trapped here with her powers sealed for the last fifteen years," Negi explained. "She needs my blood to break free. Enough of it to kill me."

She planned to kill him? Sending people for an unwanted nap wasn't exactly good behavior, but planning to murder someone sent you way into villain territory.

"Why does she need your blood, anyway?" Asuna asked.

"Because my father is the one who sealed her here," he answered.

"So, your dad trapped her in middle school for the last 15 years?" Ranma asked. "No wonder she's pissed. Still, she may have said not to talk, but if she's just looking for a way to catch you alone and kill you, we probably shouldn't listen to her. Maybe you can call up your old man and get him to finish what he started."

She saw a pained look on Negi's face and wondered if she'd said something wrong, but he didn't mope for long, as he looked as if he'd decided something just now.

"No, we can't tell anyone," he insisted. "We can't risk that she'll follow through on her threat and get someone else involved. Besides, my father isn't an option. He's missing. But Evangeline might know something about where he is. Most people think my father is dead, but I know he isn't. So asking her about it is another reason I have to do this myself."

Poor kid. She didn't realize his father was missing too. Ranma knew exactly how it felt having to deal with something like that so young, and it was the sort of thing no one should have to go through.

"Hey kid," she told him, trying to sound a bit friendly for once. "I don't know about being friends, but I'll certainly do what I can to help you find your dad. If that means beating up a vampire until she's ready to talk, well, that's right up my alley anyway."

"I'll help too," Asuna promised. "Don't worry Negi. We won't let her win."

Ranma kind of hoped the help did end up violent again. Evangeline may not have stolen her own father away from her, but having a murderous mage to beat on would be good practice.

* * *

Asuna had never thought she'd see that side of Ranma. The girl who couldn't be bothered to do anything with anyone had actually volunteered to help Negi out. She understood why Ranma might be so cold to everyone, but it wasn't until she'd seen her make that offer to help that she could really say she'd adjusted her opinion of her classmate by much. The next morning, she'd even greeted Ranma warmly when she arrived in class, but the cold silence she got back made it clear that nothing had changed as far as her public behavior.

Ranma may have a good reason for pushing people away, but she was gratingly good at it. Asuna had needed to talk a deep breath just to keep from snapping at her. Well, Ranma could be like that all she wanted as long as she helped out with the Evangeline thing. Asuna certainly hoped she did, because Negi was starting to look like he might not be much use himself.

First she'd practically had to drag him to school he'd been so worried about what Evangeline would do, and now that she wasn't even here, he was just moping in front of the class, hardly even teaching a proper lesson.

Some elite group of vampire hunters they were. Ranma was convinced she could handle the issue herself and there was nothing to worry about. Negi was on the other end of the spectrum worried about how everything could go wrong. For her part, Asuna didn't know much about vampires, mages, or magic and was only now realizing that they hadn't even bothered to come up with any sort plan beyond Ranma's "make her talk" idea. Maybe 'Baka Red' really did fit her after all.

Ah well, it probably wasn't important anyway. Asuna pretty much agreed with Ranma. Evangeline and Chachamaru didn't seem too dangerous. As long as she stuck with Negi, it should work out. She could just drive them off again if they tried anything. When school finished for the day, she was working on convincing Negi of just that so he didn't worry so much when she turned around to find him missing.

He wouldn't have just run off, would he? Not when he was that frightened of Evangeline. Not to mention that Asuna was carrying his staff for him. Could Evangeline actually have kidnapped him right out from underneath her? Negi might be in trouble after all. She had to do something! Running back the way she came, she rounded a corner, spotting Ranma.

"Ranma, Negi disappeared on me," she told the redhead. "I think Evangeline might have done something."

"Crap," Ranma spat. "I didn't think she'd try something in broad daylight. Quick, where did you last see him?"

"Right around the corner over here," Asuna answered, leading her to where it happened.

"So, he just disappeared?" Ranma asked looking around once they arrived.

"One second I was chatting with him, and when I turned around, there was no one there."

"Hmm, I'm going to try to sense for anything magical in the area," Ranma told her.

"You can do that?" Asuna asked. "Are you a mage too?"

"I'm no mage," Ranma said quickly. "And I don't much like using magic, but I can do a little with it when I have to."

Ranma then took a deep breath and appeared to be concentrating on something. After almost half a minute of this, Asuna got impatient. "Do you sense anything?"

"That staff," she answered. "I almost think there may be something else too. It's faint, but … wait, yes it's over there!"

Seeing nothing by the shelves Ranma had pointed at, Asuna didn't know what to expect, so she gasped when she saw movement, only to let out a sigh when she saw it was just a small furry animal running from them. Probably just got spooked by their voices. But Ranma wasn't leaving it at that, dashing forward and grabbing the white-furred creature before it could make its escape.

"Are you working with Evangeline?" she demanded of the animal, the threat of violence if she didn't like the answer obvious in her voice.

"Ranma, that's just some kind of ferret or something," Asuna said soothingly, not wanting to set her off any further. "I don't think it's working for anyone."

"Yeah, I'm not working for anyone," the creature yelled in fright. "And I've never even heard of an Evangeline. I'm just looking for Aniki!"

"It can talk?!" Asuna asked in surprise, wondering a moment later why such things even surprised her anymore.

"Yes, I can talk," he said. "And I'm an ermine, by the way. Now please tell this scary nee-san to let me go!"

"I'll let you go when you finish explaining why you're here," Ranma told him, but not nearly so harshly as when she last spoke to him. "Who is this aniki of yours?"

"Negi Springfield," he answered. "I just came to find him and help him out. That's all."

"Wait, you're looking for Negi too?" Asuna asked. "We were trying to find him because he just went missing, and we were afraid something had happened to him."

"Well then, you can leave that to me," he told them. "Albert Chamomile, at your service. My nose will find him in no time. I was here in the first place because I'd caught his scent."

"Perfect," Ranma said, dropping the ermine to the floor. "Lead the way."

The two of them ran after the small animal, who led them to the dorms without any hesitation. Asuna was still wondering why Evangeline would have taken Negi there of all places when they burst into the building's shared bath.

"Asuna, Ranma, you came too!" Negi greeted them from where he was surrounded by most of the rest of their class, all dressed in their bathing suits.

"What's going on here?" Asuna demanded to know. "I thought you'd been kidnapped or something."

"I sort of was kidnapped, but it was just to get me here," he explained.

"We put this together to cheer Negi-sensei up," Ayaka added.

"Well, I've wasted enough of my time," Ranma muttered. "I'm out of here."

Asuna was relieved that Negi was safe, but wasn't at all happy about what her classmates had just pulled. She was ready to tell them off when she realized she was forgetting something. The ermine they'd brought along had been looking for Negi too, but why? And did he actually know enough not to talk in front of anyone else? Looking to see where he'd went, she didn't spot him anywhere, only to be to be interrupted by a screech from one of the girls. This was soon followed by a second and then a third, as Asuna saw that those that cried out where now missing parts of their bathing suits. It was only when a flash of white shot toward her still carrying a bikini top that Asuna realized what was going on.

Sending a fist smashing into his head, she knocked him away, both to defend herself and to punish the little pervert. She was no longer sure she even wanted to know why he was here.

* * *

Negi was thrilled to actually have Chamo here. Now he had a friend he knew from back in Wales to talk to. But they needed to hurry back to their room so they could talk before Konoka returned. Not that Chamo was waiting until they were there, but with no one else around, that was probably fine.

"I thought you were the nice one," Chamo told Asuna, "but you're pretty scary too."

"Don't be such a pervert and there won't be a need for that."

At that point, they'd just about reached their room, but there was one surprising roadblock to getting inside, as Ranma was standing by their door.

"Ranma, were you waiting for us?" Negi asked, excited to see that she really was getting involved.

"Yeah, just something I wanted to ask you," Ranma answered. "You're a teacher, so do you know where Evangeline lives?"

"Evangeline is the girl from before, the one you were afraid had kidnapped Aniki, right?" Chamo asked, as Asuna ushered them inside, closing the door behind them.

"That's right," Asuna told him once it was shut.

"I see how it is then," Chamo said turning his attention directly to Ranma. "You got all worried about Aniki's safety, and even if Evangeline wasn't involved, you just can't rest until you've taken care of the problem. Such devotion to your teacher! I'm really moved!"

Negi was a little embarrassed by this, feeling a bit sorry for having worried Ranma and Asuna so much, but Ranma actually looked to be taking it even worse.

"Yeah, I decided to take care of the problem before something actually happened. So what?" Ranma declared.

"I want to do something about Evangeline too," Negi chimed in, "but I still have no idea how I'm going to find my destined partner."

"When then you're lucky I'm here," Chamo announced. "Because you have it all wrong. You're still a kid, so you can stick to provisional contracts. No need to worry about finding the perfect partner. You can try as many as you like and see how they work out."

"What? That's great news!" Negi declared, excited by possibility. If there was an option like that, it'd be easy to get a partner to help against Evangeline. "In that case, do you want form a provisional contract, Ranma? You're already strong, so we'd be able to beat her for sure if we worked together."

"Yeah, I'll be passing on that," Ranma answered, crashing down a lot of the excitement Negi had just built.

"Come on, you already promised to help him," Asuna said. "He's been worrying himself sick over this thing? If it's just provisional or whatever, then why not just do it until Evangeline is dealt with?"

"I said I'd help, and I will," Ranma answered firmly. "But I never agreed to sign any magical contract, even if it is provisional."

"Aw, come on," Chamo said, hopping up on Ranma's shoulder. "It's not bad at all. Just one little kiss and the contract is done, making you even stronger with the magical boost."

"Is that all? In that case …" Ranma began really sweetly before her face suddenly turned frighteningly dark. "… not if my life depended on it."

"So cold," Chamo complained, "but maybe we should take another angle."

"What do you mean?" Negi asked, a little shocked by the strength of Ranma's refusal, but hoping Chamo might still have a good idea.

"It might be best to pick someone that really likes you as your first partner, and I'm afraid Nee-san here isn't that high on the list yet," Chamo explained. "But when I was scouting in the bath, I found one girl that really made my sensor go ding."

Which girl that was would have to wait as Konoka had just gotten back from the bath. "Ah, Ranma you're here again?" she asked, before turning her attention to the Chamo. "Oh cute! A pure-white ermine. Is he Negi-sensei's pet?"

Soon she was calling out for everyone to come see, and Negi found himself surrounded again as everyone was fawning over Chamo. By the time Konoka had ran off to get permission for him to keep Chamo and everyone else had dispersed, Negi noticed that Ranma had disappeared at some point in the confusion. Well, now that they were alone in their room again he could find out who Chamo had been talking about. So he pulled out is class list and let him look over it.

"That's the one," he said, pointing at Miyazaki Nodoka. "You even wrote that she's cute."

"Yeah, but will she even be willing to form a contract?" Negi asked, getting a bit depressed again. "You saw how strongly Ranma was against it. I mean maybe it is too much to ask for even a temporary partnership when I'm only ten."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Asuna told him. "Ranma was probably just worried about her first kiss. That's very important to a girl, and you know she's not very tactful at the best of times."

"Besides, this girl is currently the highest on the list of those who like Aniki," Chamo added. "If it's her, there's no way she'll turn down a kiss. You just leave it to me, Aniki. I'll take care of everything."

"Thanks Chamo!" Negi agreed, glad he had such a trustworthy friend here.

* * *

Chamo knew he had to hurry since he'd intercepted that letter last night that would have revealed everything. Still, his plan was rock-solid and there was no way he could fail. First he'd get Aniki to form a pactio with this Nodoka girl, and then his second letter should be a little bonus. After all, Aniki had seemed so down about Ranma's rejection that he felt it was his duty to step in and do something about that.

So, telling a little white lie to get Aniki to the meeting place, he had everything in place and it was going perfectly. Their lips were just about to meet when something pressed him down into the ground, hard, disrupting his control of the magic circle. With the magic dissipating, he saw Nodoka faint.

"What do you think you're trying to pull, you perverted ermine?" Asuna demanded of him, holding out the crumpled out remains of the letter. "This says that you weren't sent here at all. In fact you're wanted for 2,000 counts of stealing underwear."

"There's a perfectly good explanation for that," he said quickly, scurrying away when she let him up. He was just trying to think up a good story when he realized he had more immediate problems.

"But first you need to get out of here!" Chamo said urgently. "Go! Hide! I'll explain it all later!"

"Why does she need to hide?" Negi asked, as he walked over, but before Chamo could say anything about that he was scooped up and held painfully tight.

"Because he doesn't want me to see her. Isn't that right Chamo?" Ranma announced frostily.

"Can't … breathe," Chamo managed to squeak out as Ranma handed a different letter to Asuna for her to read.

This was one Chamo had written himself and he knew very well what it said.

"Oh, and just when exactly was I kidnapped by Evangeline?" Asuna asked, sounding even more angry as he was now looked down on by two faces that would be extremely cute if they didn't look as if they suddenly wanted a new ermine fur coat.

"I was just trying to help Aniki!" Chamo pleaded after wriggling into a position where he could at least talk. "I thought Ranma here might form a pactio if she thought it was needed to rescue you."

Chamo then continued to weave a sob-story about his sister and stealing the underwear for warmth, and just needing the protection of being Aniki's familiar. The two girls didn't seem to be buying it, but thankfully, Aniki had a heart of gold and forgave him completely. So that had worked out at least. He'd still needed to start getting his Aniki some provisional contracts, but it might be best take the rest of the day off on that and let tempers cool. At least there'd already been a start on the cooling, with Asuna having turned her attention away from him and toward Ranma.

"Just out of curiosity," Asuna said to Ranma, "would you have actually gone through with the pactio to rescue me?"

"Of course not," she answered quickly. "I'm plenty strong enough to handle our little problem child. I don't need any magical help."

"But you still came to rescue her, right?" Negi said happily.

"I already told you, I don't want to see anyone hurt," Ranma replied. "Now stop making such a big deal over every little thing I do."

She was a strange and sometimes scary girl. She even smelled a little funny come to think of it, but Chamo was really starting to feel she'd be a good one to keep around. That settled it. She might be a tough nut to crack, but even if he had to settle in for the long haul, Chamo would get his aniki that pactio.

* * *

If it hadn't been for Chamo the other day, Ranma might have already taken care of the Evangeline issue. Good thing for the stupid ermine that the vampire hadn't tried anything in that time, because now she'd be able to act. Evangeline may be skipping Negi's class, but she was still showing up to school, so it was a simple matter to follow her and Chachamaru discreetly once class got out. Even once she had the pair alone, she continued to stay hidden.

Ranma wanted to make sure she knew where they were heading in case they gave her the slip again. So she continued to trail them until they came to a rustic looking log cabin of some sort. Not at all the kind of place she would have expected, but there was no reason to stay hidden anymore.

"So this is where you live?" Ranma asked, revealing herself as they turned to face her. "I hope you won't mind, but I've got a few questions I want answered about Negi's father. Then I'm going to make sure you're fully convinced to leave the kid alone."

"Well, this is a surprise," Evangeline said, looking a bit too pleased by that for her tastes. "I was thinking I would need to deal with you sooner or later, and then you're kind enough to show up yourself."

"I don't know how you planned to deal with me," Ranma fired back. "I've already proven I can take the two of you on."

"Oh, of course I didn't want another fight," Evangeline, still smiling sweetly. "After all, I'm just an ordinary human until the next full moon. I just wanted to sit down and talk with you. And to think, I didn't know how I'd convince you to come here."

This wasn't at all what Ranma expected, so how was she supposed to react? It wouldn't feel right to start attacking her if she just wanted to talk. Still, she doubted it'd go so smoothly that she'd just answer her questions and agree to her terms, so Ranma would probably get some exercise before this was all over.

"As long as you'll answer my questions, we can keep it to talking for now," Ranma agreed.

"Of course, just come inside and I'll be happy to tell you everything."

Following her inside she saw the room was full of all sorts of dolls, stuffed animals, and other fancy girly stuff. It was a nightmare room if she ever saw one. This was exactly the sort of reason she didn't get involved with her classmates, and it seemed that even if Evangeline was a vampire, she was still a girl.

"Just take a seat over there and I'll begin," she told Ranma, directing her to a table that was also littered with more of the girly knickknacks.

She reluctantly sat down, when she noticed the floor underneath her glowing.

"Crap!" she said, just realizing she'd fallen for a trap when everything went white.

Her vision cleared a moment later and she saw herself standing on a standing on a tall pillar surrounded by water. There was a bridge leading across to a larger structure a short distance away. So it had been some kind of teleportation spell? But why send her here? Did Evangeline just want her out of the way until she'd dealt with Negi? Only the girl in question popped into existence next to her a moment later.

"Where did you take us?" Ranma asked warily. If Evangeline was here too, the trap might not be over.

"We haven't even left my room." she told him, which didn't make much sense to her unless it was some kind of illusion. "Think of it as being shrunk down into this magical room in a bottle."

Actually, Ranma preferred to think on that as little as possible.

"So what, you came to gloat about trapping me before you pop back out?" Ranma asked.

"No, I want to solve the problem, not just put it off," Evangeline answered.

"If it's a fight you want, then I'm happy to give you one," Ranma declared getting into a stance. "If I win, will you let me out of this place?"

She might have more traps lying around, but if Ranma was careful, she still thought she could come out ahead with this. Chachamaru hadn't followed them in yet, and that might make up for whatever home field advantage she had.

"Ha! You actually think you have the slightest chance at all?" Evangeline mocked. "In here, my powers aren't limited at all. Allow me to show you the terror of facing me at my full strength."

Even if it was mostly hot air, Ranma was a bit unnerved by this and decided not to let Evangeline get the first move. Only she'd hardly taken one step when she found the vampire in her face, bringing her to a quick halt.

"Boo," Evangeline declared before a wave of magical energy slammed into her, sending her careening straight across the narrow bridge, the force continuing to shove her until it finally let her come to a stop on the other side. Evangeline flew after, hovering in the air a short distance away. That had been a neat trick, but not a terribly damaging one. Ranma's confidence was wavering, but she wasn't about to give up yet.

Trying again to go on the offensive, Ranma lashed out at the floating girl, only to have her dance away out of range. As the process repeated itself several times, it was clear that Evangeline was only toying with her. Still, if she didn't want to take Ranma seriously, then that could be her own downfall. Not even waiting for Evangeline to lower herself close to ground level after she flew away from one attack, Ranma used the sharpest instant movement she could muster to get behind Evangeline before jumping up in the air to attack her.

Evangeline may have thought she was out of range, but you should never underestimate a Saotome's ability to take the fight to the air. Evangeline was only just turning to face her when Ranma's foot made contact. Only that contact was with an invisible barrier and did nothing to affect the now smirking Evangeline. Ranma was really beginning to panic as she fell back to the ground. This was a seriously powerful mage with barriers and everything.

Ranma just didn't know what she could do. Even her own father hadn't been able to break through a barrier like that, and he had been an amazing martial artist. How was she supposed to do anything? Ranma couldn't win this fight. Her only hope was escape. Maybe if she went back to where she'd appeared in this place, she'd find some way out. Evangeline was already chanting a spell as Ranma fell, so the moment she landed, Ranma leaped out the way, hoping to avoid whatever was being cast.

Or she tried to leap out the way anyway, instead she just sort of fell forward with her feet not budging at all. Scrambling to figure out what happened, Ranma saw ice had surrounded her feet and was even now growing up her legs. Trying to pull free had no effect, and even pounding away at the stuff with her hands didn't so much as chip it. Soon enough the ice had grown all the way up her torso and was extending down her arms.

The freezing cold prison was just loose enough to allow her to breathe, but that wouldn't matter once her head was covered in ice. Was this how she was going to go? Suffocating in a block of ice? Only the ice stopped at her shoulders, not even climbing her neck.

"All that exercise made me a bit thirsty," Evangeline then declared. "So if you would just hold still."

Ranma tried hard to do anything but that as the vampire flew closer, drawing up on her neck, but all she could manage was to thrash her head around a bit. And that little bit of rebellion wasn't enough to stop Evangeline, as she soon felt twin pricks against her neck. Ranma wished she knew more about vampires. What exactly happened to you when they bit you? Evangeline then pulled away a second later.

"Woah, spicy," she said. "That almost felt like … oh, so that's how they do it. I had wondered."

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked weakly, curiosity overcoming her fear for a moment.

"If you're playing dumb, I already know," she answered, "and if you're really in the dark, then I'm under no obligation to tell you."

Was she talking about the curse? Did she know something about Jusenkyo?

"Oh, and you're resisting the vampirism as well," she added. "I've never seen that before. Kind of makes me want to see if I can force it past your resistance."

"Wait, you can do that?" Ranma suddenly asked, practically forgetting her current situation in her excitement. Even the dean couldn't get the slightest bit of transformation magic through the curse.

"Probably, if I really wanted to," she answered. "But there's a good chance it would break you in the process, and that would be a shame when you just became so much more interesting. No, there are other ways I can deal with you. So why don't you look into my eyes?"

"What? Ranma asked, doing just that for a moment before realizing she probably shouldn't be going along with what Evangeline said. Only now, she couldn't actually bring herself to look away.

"Good, it seems your resistance doesn't extend to hypnotism. Let's begin then."

Ranma's mind started to fade out as Evangeline continued to speak. She didn't know how long this continued. Suddenly, she woke with a start, wondering what had just happened. She was sitting at a table across from Evangeline. That's right. She'd come to visit her, but she'd really spaced out there for a moment. She needed to pay more attention to her surroundings.

"As I was saying," Evangeline droned on. "I'm a normal human until the next full moon, so I wouldn't be doing anything until then. Now if that's all you wanted to talk about, I have other things to do."

Ranma was glad to hear there wasn't much the girl could do for a while, but she was sure there'd been something else she'd come here for. Still, it just felt like a very bad idea to press the issue any further, so Ranma got up and left her home, heading back for the dorms. She could always deal with Evangeline some other time. The girl was clearly no threat to her.

* * *

"This is bad, no matter how you look at it," Chamo insisted to their small group, with Ranma and Asuna having gathered in Negi's room as well to discuss the Evangeline situation. "You shouldn't have shown mercy on that robot yesterday. Now Evangeline is going to find out you have a partner and is sure to do something."

Negi understood what he was trying to say, but there was just no way he could have brought himself to actually hurt Chachamaru. Not only was she his student, but she'd seemed so nice too.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Ranma said. "While you were off with Chachamaru, I had a little chat with our vampire, and she's nothing but a normal human until the next full moon. That's plenty of time to worry over what to do."

"You went to visit Evangeline on your own?" Negi asked. "That's too dangerous. Promise me you won't do anything like that again."

"Don't worry so much. I handled her once, and I can do it again." Ranma insisted.

"No, Aniki is right," Chamo argued. "I did some research last night and 15 years ago, Evangeline had a 60 million bounty on her head in the Magic World. She's a seriously dangerous big-time criminal. There's no telling what she could do. We need every advantage we can get to deal with her. You'll have to form a pactio too."

"How many times do I have to tell you no, you stupid ermine?" Ranma asked.

"This is no time to be shy, our lives are on the line!" Chamo argued. "Not just ours, but every student in this dorm could be caught up in it if Evangeline goes after Aniki right now."

This really was terrible. Ranma was risking her life for his sake and now just being here was a danger to his students. Someone was going to end up hurt because of him, and he just couldn't stand the thought of it. He had to get out of here. Grabbing his staff, Negi ran to the window and flew off. They'd all be safer without him.

* * *

The last few days had been very frustrating for Asuna. It had been great when Negi had come back in a much better mood than when he'd left, but ever since he'd returned, he seemed to be trying to exclude her from the whole Evangeline thing as much as possible. He'd even run off to take care of an apparently sick Evangeline one day as if she wasn't his enemy and somehow convinced her to start attending classes again, all of this with hardly a word to Asuna about any of it.

And Ranma was nearly as bad. She kept insisting everything was fine, and she could handle it herself, but never wanted to actually do anything about it. She just went on about how they had until the next full moon and they could handle it later. The whole thing left her with very little to do, so without better options, she ended up turning in early during the scheduled blackout. As she lay there in her bed, she was still thinking over how much she couldn't stand things.

It was sad to say, but the Chamo, the perverted little ermine, was probably the least headache inducing member of their little group at the moment. That didn't make her any happier to see him when he woke her up a short while later, but she forgot all about that annoyance as he explained himself.

"Evangeline somehow got her powers back early and she's attacking Aniki," he told her.

This was bad. Asuna needed to hurry. No matter how much Negi had been trying to keep her out of this, she wasn't going to let him face this alone.

* * *

Negi had just finished making sure Makie and Yuna were alright after knocking them out. That was all four of the girls Evangeline had taken control of that were now out cold. All that was left was Chachamaru and Evangeline herself. Still, that was no simple prospect, as Evangeline clearly had more of her power than the last time they'd fought. He had to get them to the trap he'd set on the bridge.

"That was an amusing show," Evangeline called out to him. "But I'm afraid this will go even more poorly than the last time you tried to take us on alone."

"Who says he's alone?" a new voice called out, as Negi saw Ranma standing on the other end of the roof he was currently on. Negi had mixed feelings about seeing her. He wanted to make sure no one else was hurt because of him, but Ranma was really strong, so it might work out for the best overall.

"I'm surprised you actually showed up," Evangeline said. "Even the thought of interfering should have twisted your guts into a knot."

"So you were behind that?" Ranma asked. "I should have known it was just a stupid bit of magic. Well I promised I'd help Negi, and I wasn't going to break my word because I was little bit uneasy."

"While I commend you for your impressive willpower, showing up was probably the worst thing you could do for Negi."

Negi didn't like the sound of Evangeline's words. Was she going to try to use Ranma as a hostage or something? Instead, she simply pointed at Negi.

"If you don't believe me, why don't you take a good look at Negi and see if he reminds you of anyone," Evangeline continued.

Ranma did just that, looking at him briefly in confusion before her face changed over to one of surprise, and then quickly rage. "You! What are you doing here?" she yelled at him.

"What are you talking about?" Negi asked. "It's me, Negi."

"It's useless to talk to her," Evangeline informed him. "She won't hear anything that's said to her. She sees you as the person she hates more than anyone else, and nothing you say can change that. Who knows, maybe she actually thinks you're me. Wouldn't that be an amusing twist?"

Whomever Ranma saw right now, it was clear she was about to get violent. This was bad. Taking on Evangeline and Chachamaru would be hard enough, but if Ranma was after him too, it got all the trickier. He needed to get away, try to get lead them all into his trap. Hopping onto his staff, he made a run for it but was blocked by Evangeline, who flew into his path. He tried another direction only to have Evangeline head him off again.

"Stop running and face me!" Ranma roared, leaping at him. The speed came as a shock to Negi, who despite having been already trying to fly off again, did little more than reduce the impact thanks to his efforts. It knocked him out of his flight as he rolled across the roof he'd been hovering over, managing to hold onto his staff through sheer force of will.

Maybe that magic canceling spell he'd tried on Ranma once before would undo whatever Evangeline had done to her. Beginning the incantation even as he was getting back on his feet, he had still hardly even started it before Ranma was again in his face, ripping the staff out of his hands and tossing it away.

"I won't let you!" Ranma shouted as Evangeline laughed from where she watching.

"Having a little trouble dealing with your student?" she asked. "You wanted to face off against me, but you can't even handle this much?"

Negi couldn't give up though, so he reached into his coat to pull out a wand that he'd brought as a backup, but this time he couldn't even start an incantation before his wrist was grabbed painfully and the wand too was ripped away from him and tossed to the side.

Negi then found himself thrown and was bracing himself for a painful impact when he realized he'd gone right over the edge. Worse yet, they were six stories up. Calling for his staff, he hoped it would get there in time, only to see Ranma intercept it before it could reach him. That was terrifying to watch, as without his staff to save him, he might not even survive the fall. He starting directing his magic to protect him as well as he could and hoping for the best when someone grabbed onto him, slowing him to a stop a few feet above the ground.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Evangeline told him from where she was carrying him. "I just have no intention of lapping your blood up off the ground."

Negi was just grateful that she had saved him, and it made him all the more convinced that she actually had some real good in her. But his attempt to thank her quickly changed when something caught his eye.

"Look out, Evangeline!" he cried out, right before Ranma came crashing down on top of her, having leaped after them.

"Get off you fool," Evangeline cried out, blasting her away with a bit of magic, seeming uninjured by the attack. Except even though they'd hardly moved when Ranma had landed on them, they suddenly fell to the ground in a heap. Negi didn't know what could have caused it until the lights started coming back on.

"That's not fair! The power wasn't supposed to come back on yet," Evangeline complained as the two of them stood back up only to see Ranma approaching them again. Evangeline stood in front of him and called out to the other girl. "It's over. I release you."

But Ranma only picked up speed, not even appearing to hear Evangeline. It looked like she planned to go right through the vampire in order to get to Negi, and if the seal was back up, then Evangeline would have no protection at all against the attack. Quickly, he shoved her out of the way, trying to shore up his own defenses only to explode in pain as a fist slammed into his chest and again sent him careening across the ground.

"Chachamaru, help us deal with this madwoman, before things get any further out of hand," Evangeline ordered. "Such a pain. I don't even have enough magic to cancel my own spell."

Chachamaru wasted little time in following orders, landing on the ground near him and tossing him his staff. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, Negi grabbed it, hoping it would be more use this time. It very well may be, as Chachamaru got behind the smaller Ranma, who was all but ignoring her, and restrained her as best as she could. That should buy him enough time. Negi quickly started to chant. This time he'd get Ranma back to normal.

Ranma's struggling seemed to increase the moment his chanting began, soon ripping free of Chachamaru through sheer strength before slamming her into the ground hard enough to crack the ground around her. Still, Chachamaru had done enough. He was on the final word of the spell and Ranma was too far away to do anything about it now. Only Ranma seemed to all but disappear a moment later, and before Negi could even finish the last word, he felt the staff again being ripped away from him.

A blinding pain followed a moment later, and he realized he'd just been smacked in the side of the head with his own staff. He struggled for a second to clear his head only to be hoisted into the air by his shirt.

"I am sorry," Chachamaru said from where she still lay. "I was damaged by the attack. Until I am repaired I am unable to use the lower half of my body. I'm afraid there is little I can do to help you Negi-sensei."

With that, the last of his hope faded. There was nothing he could do but take Ranma's attacks and hope she didn't hurt him too badly.

"What are you doing, Ranma, you're hurting him!" Asuna cried out, grabbing the arm holding Negi up and trying to force her to lower Negi back to the ground.

"You shouldn't be here," Negi told her, worried Ranma would do to the surprise arrival what he'd done to Chachamaru if she interfered.

"Take her out you fool," Evangeline then ordered. "She can't even hear anything you say."

"He deserves to be hurt!" Ranma then yelled out as if he had heard Asuna after all.

"Negi can't possibly deserve that," Asuna argued. "I don't know what happened, but he's just a kid."

"I keep telling you that's useless," Evangeline insisted. "That outburst was only a coincidence. The hypnosis won't let her hear what anyone is saying."

"This isn't Negi," Ranma then said, sounding as if she was struggling with something. "It can't be."

"What did you do?" Evangeline demanded of Asuna. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Evangeline messed with your head," Asuna said next. "This isn't real. You have to fight it!"

Ranma then dropped Negi, grabbing at her head with the hand that wasn't still holding his staff. "What did she do to me?"

Ranma then reached down to pick up a fist sized rock laying on the ground, and Negi shirked back, afraid that she'd fallen back under Evangeline's spell. But instead, she smashed it into the side of her own head, actually shattering the stone.

"Ow!" she complained.

"What are you doing?!" Negi cried out, worried now about his student.

"Trying to knock myself out," she answered. "I'm a danger to everyone right now."

"Well, stop it!" Negi insisted. "Just give me my staff back and I can take care of it."

"Oh, I guess I can do this," Ranma said, seeming to realize she was still holding the thing. But rather than hand it to Negi she began to chant herself, Negi realizing a moment later that it was a simple sleep spell. Casting it on herself, she then fell limply to the ground.

"If you can do that, how about thinking of it before you smash your head with a rock next time?" Asuna complained to the fallen girl.

"I realized she knew about magic, but I didn't think Ranma was actually a mage," Negi said in surprise as he gently took his staff back.

"She told me she wasn't," Asuna answered. "That she knew a bit of magic, but that was it."

Well, maybe she hadn't graduated from a school or anything, but it wasn't a trivial matter to get to where you could cast even low level spells like that. If she wasn't a mage, Ranma was at least at the point where she could become one pretty easily. For now though, he was more worried about what had been done to her.

"Can you remove the hypnosis?" Negi asked Evangeline. "I want her back to normal before she wakes up."

"Sounded like she broke free of it already," Evangeline answered. "It'd be pretty well shattered by now. Any traces of it should be gone by the time the sleep spell wears off."

That was great news. And looking around, Chachamaru was disabled and Evangeline had her powers sealed again. They were both unable to continue fighting.

"This is our victory!" he declared excitedly. "That means you have to stop doing bad things and keep showing up to my class."

"Fine," she agreed. "I suppose I can at least do that much after all this."

"Great, I'm going to write 'I won' in the class roster," he announced, pulling it out to do just that, and ignoring her protests. With how bad things had looked there for a while, it was amazing how well everything had turned out.

* * *

After waking up in Asuna's bed, Ranma was able to remember everything. The trap she'd fallen for in Evangeline's house, the haze that had surrounded her mind right before she thought she'd seen the mage that had taken her father, and even every blow she'd landed on the person that had turned out to be Negi. Sitting there as Asuna, Negi, and Chamo explained what happened after she'd sent herself to sleep, she almost wished she didn't remember. And their story added a second item that bothered her almost as much.

"You're just going to trust her that she'll behave?" Ranma asked, completely dumbfounded. "She's far too dangerous for that. She wanted to kill you and she almost got me to do it for her!"

"I don't think she's that bad," Negi answered. "She saved me during the fight, and I'm pretty sure she didn't expect you to go that far. She even tried to stop you when it got bad."

"It's still too risky," Ranma insisted, remember how overwhelmingly powerful she'd been in the space she'd trapped him in. "We need to tell Takahata and the dean everything that she did. Get them to make sure nothing like this can happen again."

Some giggling from Asuna caught her attention. "What are you laughing about?" Ranma asked with a scowl.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," she said. "I just find it funny that just a few days ago Negi was the one terrified of Evangeline and you were trying to convince him there was nothing to worry about."

"That is kind of funny," Negi agreed, chuckling a bit himself before wincing and grabbing at his ribs.

It was painful for Ranma too, if in a different way, as she was reminded of what she'd done.

"Look," she told him. "I know I wasn't in my right mind and all, but I'm still really sorry about beating you up like that."

"There's nothing for you to be sorry for," Negi quickly insisted. "You didn't even realize what you were doing. Besides, I know some basic healing magic, so I'll be fine again in no time."

Ranma couldn't bring herself to just leave it at that though. "Still, she only managed to do that because I fell for her trap. If I'd been more careful, none of this would have happened. I don't know how yet, but I promise I'll make this up to you one way or another."

"Chance!" Chamo cried out excitedly. "Ask her to form a pactio! She can't turn you down now."

"Don't give him any stupid ideas!" Ranma said angrily, grabbing a nearby pillow and sending it flying into the white ermine."

"I don't want to force Ranma to do that if she doesn't want to," Negi then said, much to Ranma's relief. Not that she would have done it even if he'd asked, but she'd have felt even worse if she'd had to turn him down right after saying that.

"If you're determined to make it up to me, then could you forgive Evangeline for what she did?" Negi asked. "Don't tell Takahata-sensei or anyone about it. I don't want her to get in trouble for this."

Ranma hadn't been expecting that request. It wasn't particularly one she wanted to grant either. She was still worried that the vampire would try something else. But Ranma had been serious about making it up to him, and it was clear from the pleading in his eyes that Negi really wanted this. Well, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to ignore Evangeline and thus avoid antagonizing her.

"Fine, if that's really what you want, then as long as she doesn't try anything else, I'll leave her be," Ranma agreed.

"That's too easy!" Chamo protested. "You can get more than that out of her!"

"Give up on the stupid provisional contract already!" Ranma snapped, grabbing the pillow again and this time pressing it down onto Chamo as if to smother him.

"That's not even what I meant!" Chamo said after managing to wriggle his head free of the pillow. "Why you were so mad! We talked about it while you were asleep and Aniki wanted to know!"

"We were kind of curious," Negi admitted.

"Yeah," Asuna agreed. "Evangeline said you saw Negi as the person you hated most. So who was it that made you act like that?"

Ranma didn't exactly want to go spreading her life story around, but maybe telling part of it could be considered an extra bit of atonement for what she'd done under Evangeline's control. Besides, there was always the chance Negi actually knew something.

"Fine, let's just say you're not the only one whose father is missing," Ranma explained to Negi. "Only I know the guy responsible for my dad's disappearance."

"Who is he?" Negi asked, his full attention on Ranma.

"I don't have a name," Ranma admitted. "I just know that he's kind of thin, light-skinned mage with green spiky hair. I could draw you a picture sometime if you think you might know someone that would describe. He wanted me and my father for his experiments. Thanks to my dad, I managed to escape, but he wasn't so lucky. I don't even know if he's alive or not anymore. The guy had already killed at least one of his 'experiments.'"

Ranma had been looking away during her summary, but turning back to Negi she saw the kid was openly crying, much to Ranma's own embarrassment. "Hey, isn't that a bit much?"

"I'm sorry," Negi answered. "But it's just so sad. But I know your dad is alive somewhere too. We can work together and we'll definitely find both our dads."

"Yeah, yeah, you can't be any less useful than the dean has been in that regard," Ranma told the still crying kid. She really did appreciate the sentiment, but just didn't know what exactly he'd be able to do about it.

"You really have had it pretty rough, haven't you?" Asuna asked. "I'm sorry if I haven't made any of this any easier for you while we've been classmates."

"Hey don't get the wrong idea," she said quickly to Asuna, internal 'don't let yourself become girly' alarms going off at how friendly Asuna was acting. "I only opened up because I owed Negi. This doesn't mean I want to be friends. Nothing has changed."

"Don't be silly, we're all already friends, whether you realize it or not," Chamo declared, having pulled a cigarette out from somewhere and started smoking it. "After all we just went through the sort of harrowing experience that binds a group together for life."

Already friends huh? As strange as it was, it might not have been that terrible a group to make friends with. Chamo could grate on her more than a little, but none of them seemed too terrible, and Asuna hadn't even tried to drag her into doing anything too girly yet. Still, that might only make it worse. It was too easy already to grow complacent and just start thinking that life wasn't really that terrible, but she couldn't let herself do that.

Ranma had to hate to hate her life and believe it had been ruined. Had to hate the man who had done this. Anything less felt like a betrayal to her father. Could she risk even a small group of friends, or would it mean that one day if someone did what Evangeline had done, she'd see that mage from four years ago and just not care? It was something she'd have to think long and hard on.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

This chapter didn't turn out to be delayed as much as I expected. Sort of worked out the timeline pretty quickly. At least determined that it was just too soon to do any of the original subplots I have planned. Not enough character development all around yet. Actually, the hardest part of this chapter was just bringing myself to write dialogue as corny as some of what Negi says/thinks. I had to keep reminding myself that's completely in character for him and a few of the other characters to a lesser degree.


	5. Class Trip

Author's Note:

I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but I just want to be clear that due to the changes in the battle with Evangeline, Asuna still only has an imperfect pactio at this point.

* * *

For the first time in a while, Ranma had managed to get Takahata into a sparring match, and she was determined to force him to reveal the rest of his style this time. Those iaiken punches of his may be so fast that she was only recently even able to even see any physical movement, but after all these sparring matches, it was clear his style had more to it than that. He just refused to tell her what it was, and so far he'd been able to hold her off with only that.

Before anything, Ranma needed to break into close range. She'd managed that a few times in the past, and if she stuck close, he didn't have room to use his iaiken. It almost felt more like a boxing match than a martial arts sparring session as she blocked and dodged around as many of the punches as she could, trying to weave her way in closer.

Ranma could feel the bruises starting to add up from the blows she couldn't dodge, but her persistence finally paid off as ducked under a punch with enough momentum left to push in close. Now came the real challenge: trying to keep Takahata from escaping. She kept a close watch on his feet, and sure enough he was already beginning his instant movement to get range again.

Ranma wasted no time mimicking the motion and pursuing him with her own instant movement. It worked perfectly, and she was still at close range when they both exited the technique. Ranma didn't want to waste the moment of surprise, so she was already striking out with the full force of her fists, hoping to repay some of those bruises only to catch on the edge of her vision that Takahata was already beginning a second instant movement.

Cursing silently, Ranma moved to follow, even has her fist passed through air where Takahata had just been standing. Again she succeeded in copying the movement perfectly, but since she'd been caught off guard, she was a little slow this time, and barely got a glance of him before he disappeared again. Even expecting this, Ranma hadn't fully been able to make out how he was moving this time, having missed the start of the technique.

But she'd have to take a gamble, doing her best job to figure it out based on what she'd seen and using her instincts to guess the rest. It actually came pretty close too. She matched his direction perfectly, but had misjudged his jump and came less than a meter short. Which tragically, put her right back in ideal range for Takahata's iaiken. Her opponent didn't miss this fact, as she was quickly greeted with another attack that pushed her back even further.

All that work and now she was back to square one, but she wasn't going to give up. Ranma did, however, pause when Takahata signaled for a stop.

"Impressive," he told her. "You stayed with me much better than I expected. It's getting quite troublesome to hold you off with just my iaiken."

"Then will you finally show me the rest of your style?" Ranma asked hopefully.

"Maybe soon," he answered. "I just don't want to risk hurting you seriously. It's not the sort of thing I can easily pull my punches with."

"Now I really want to know what it is," Ranma told him eagerly. "You can teach it to me right?"

"That's another reason I haven't wanted to show you, Ranma-kun," Takahata told her. "I knew you'd never leave me alone once you saw it, but I'm not sure you're suited for the technique. It requires a certain state of mind, and believe me when I tell you it's not an easy state to achieve, especially when you're still young."

"You have to at least show me now after building it up like that."

"That will have to wait for another time," Konoemon cut in as he opened the door to the room they'd been sparring in. "I have business with your training partner."

"Fine," Ranma said with a sigh, starting to head toward the exit. This whole situation with her father was a huge mess. She needed to get strong enough to rescue him, but that was all the more difficult because without him she didn't have a master that could devote a lot of time to training her. Takahata was just far too busy to substitute for her old man, and seemed more interest in meddling with her life than training her in the first place.

"Actually, before you go, I did have a question for you," Konoemon told her as she walked past. "Were you planning to go to the school trip to Kyoto?"

"Not if I have a choice," Ranma answered, "but I kind of thought you'd force me to go."

"Well, I think you've earned a little leeway," he replied. "If you don't want to go, I won't make you."

"This isn't some kind of trap to get me to stay here for magic lessons, is it?" Ranma asked suspiciously, never knowing the old man to be this accommodating.

"A nice thought, but I'm afraid I'll be too busy myself for any," he answered. "You'll be free to do whatever you want."

Now Ranma was all but convinced there was some ulterior motive in letting her stay here, but maybe she shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Whatever the reason, it might not even have much to do with her. Meanwhile, her classmates would probably only use the trip as an excuse to try to drag her into stuff, so staying behind looked pretty good to her.

"In that case, I'm definitely staying," Ranma answered. "See you."

Ranma then hurried out, afraid Takahata would try to get the dean to change his mind. But Ranma made it out safely. Leaving the school building, she was headed back for the dorms when Negi came running up to her.

"Ranma, wait up," he called out.

"Sure, what do you need?" she asked, letting him catch up.

"Well, Konoka and I were going shopping later to get a present for Asuna's birthday. I was wondering if you wanted to come with.

"Sorry, but I'll pass."

"That's cruel, Nee-san," Chamo called out, hopping up on to Negi's shoulder. "And after Asuna helped you break free from the mind control and all."

It was true that Asuna's words had been the thing that had gotten through to her, and she did owe her, but that didn't mean Ranma would go that far. She may be having second thoughts about isolating herself as much as she had been, but she still knew for certain that whatever body she was trapped in, she wasn't going to get dragged into acting too girly. And shopping with a girl like Konoka set off all sorts of red flags.

Still, she pulled a 1,000 yen bill out of her pocket and held it out to Negi, glad she was wearing pants that actually had pockets right now instead of the stupid school uniform.

"I'm fine with helping out with the gift," Ranma offered. "It's the shopping I want nothing to do with."

"I understand," Negi said, a little sadly. "Still, I know you want to keep your secret, but you shouldn't worry about Konoka. She's really nice, and I'm sure she wouldn't think badly of you even if she found out."

Well, he misunderstood why Ranma didn't want to go, but it was easiest just to let him. She may have told him a lot about her past, but she had no intention of letting news of the curse slip to anyone else.

"Maybe so, but I'm still not going."

"Alright, but at least promise me you'll come on the school trip to Kyoto," Negi quickly replied.

"Sorry kid," she told him, "but I'm definitely skipping out on that."

Despite a couple of recent setbacks, her classmates knew pretty well to leave her alone, but she didn't trust that to last through a school trip. No, this was something she needed to avoid.

"But, you have to come," Negi protested, looking far more upset by her response than she was expecting. "There's a house in Kyoto that my father lived in for a while, so I might find out a clue about him there."

"Yeah, you promised you'd help Aniki find his father," Chamo chimed in. "And the Kansai Magic Association might cause problems, so we could use all the muscle we can get."

"So won't you please come?" Negi begged her.

"Calm down, already," she told him a bit frantically as he was practically crying as he looked up to her. "I didn't know any of that. I promised I'd help you find your dad, so if you really think there's a clue in Kyoto, then I'll come."

"Really?" Negi said, cheering up instantly. "Thanks! You won't regret this. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun too."

Well, Ranma certainly hoped they found something useful, because it was a shame to waste such a perfect chance to get out of a school activity. Then there was that thing with the Kansai Magic Association to worry about. First Evangeline, and now this? Why was it always magic? For once, couldn't it be the Kansai Martial Arts Association, Kansai Ninja Clan, or something like that? Ah well, Ranma didn't even know the details. Maybe they wouldn't cause any problems.

* * *

The day of the school trip had finally come and Setsuna found herself wondering what to do. She was meant to be the leader of group six, which was really just the five students left after everyone else had formed groups, but Evangeline and Chachamaru had yet to show up, leaving her with just Ranma and Zazie. Finally, with it being pretty clear their missing members weren't going to show, she approached their teacher and explained the issue.

"Oh, three is kind of small for a group," Negi said before turning to the other assembled students. "Can I get a volunteer to join group six?"

"I will," Chao quickly answered. "Our group had six people anyways."

"Thank you," Negi told Chao, as she approached their small group. "With four people you should be fine."

With that taken care of, they filed into the train. Setsuna took a seat next to the other members of group six, and a strange group it was. First there was the class super-genius. Then, the strange foreign girl that rarely had much to say. And finally, there was Ranma, her fellow non-human. She'd actually been thinking she might like to talk with the girl sometime. She didn't know much about Ranma's situation, but it was unlikely Setsuna would be able to find someone else that could better understand what she'd had to go through.

As such, being in the same group might be a great opportunity. Still, the middle of a crowded train was no place to discuss this.

"So, it looks like we're in the same group after all," Chao said to Ranma. "I've been looking forward to this trip for a while. There should be plenty of excitement."

"Well, I didn't really even want to be here," Ranma answered. "And I don't think sightseeing around Kyoto is terribly exciting."

"Oh, I think it will be more to your liking," Chao quickly replied. "Which reminds me, I have something you should find useful."

Rifling through her bags, she pulled out some kind of cube-shaped device with a large red button on one side.

"I don't want any gifts," Ranma said dismissively. "Not even … whatever that is."

That sort of cold reply only made Setsuna want to get a chance to talk to Ranma all the more. It was easy now to see her behavior much like Setsuna's own treatment of Konoka-ojou-sama.

"Don't think of it as a gift then," Chao insisted. "I'm giving it to you to prove a point. That said, I think you'll be glad to have it before this trip is over."

"What does it even do?" Ranma asked, still not reaching out to take the thing.

"Nothing until you need it," Chao answered enigmatically, giving the button a few good presses as if to prove her point. "But give it a try when you're desperate, and I think you'll find it's just the thing you need."

"I think I'll take my chances without it," Ranma answered.

"Tell you what," Chao said. "Just hold onto it for now, and if you haven't found a use for it by the end of the trip, you can trade it back to me for 50 meal tickets."

Now Setsuna was curious about what that little cube was supposed to do and why Chao was so eager to hand it off to Ranma. Even so, she kept as quite on the subject as Zazie who was watching the proceedings impassively.

"50? Just for holding on to it for the trip?" Ranma asked suddenly interested. "You just better pay up when this is over."

Ranma then took the cube and slipped it into the backpack that she was resting on her lap rather than having stowed it away.

"Now, since we're stuck on the train anyway, I think I'll grab some extra sleep," Ranma declared, leaning against the side of the train and seeming to doze off almost instantly.

Silence reigned after that for a while, but was broken very suddenly by the chaos around frogs appearing, seemingly from nowhere. Setsuna recognized them as low-ranking shikigami, and no threat to anyone. Still, it worried her greatly that something like this was happening. Were they making a move on Konoka? With the girl in question fine, Setsuna decided to look around and see if she could find the perpetrator.

Leaving her classmates, including Ranma who was somehow still sleeping despite all the noise, she took her sword with her. Hopefully this wouldn't cause any trouble with the train staff, but if trouble of another sort started, she'd want to be able to defend herself, so it was worth the risk. She wouldn't let anything happen to Konoka.

* * *

Ranma was woken from her nap by a shaking on her arm. Opening her eyes, she saw Negi was responsible for the interruption.

"We're here," he told her. "Did you really sleep through everything that happened?"

"Why, what happened?" Ranma asked, fully awake now.

"There were frogs everywhere and the Kansai Magic Association tried to steal my letter. I think Setsuna may be a spy for them."

"A spy?" Ranma asked, looking around to make sure no one could hear them talking about all this, but her classmates seem to have already filed out of the train. Grabbing her backpack, Ranma worked on doing the same before the train left with them still on it. "Well, I suppose I can look into that for you. Doesn't sound like anything too dangerous happened just yet anyway."

"But we don't know what they'll try next," Chamo chimed in. "We have to stay alert. No more sleeping on the job."

"Gotta sleep sometime," Ranma said with a shrug.

Shaking away from pair, Ranma spotted the target of their recent discussion standing off by herself a short distance away. This would be the perfect chance to see if anything was actually up with with the girl.

"Yo, Setsuna," she called out, as she walked up to her.

"Greetings, Saotome-san," she answered politely.

"So, you a spy for Kansai?" Ranma asked directly.

"What?!" she asked in shock. "No, I just want to protect Konoka-ojou-sama."

"Calm down, I believe you," Ranma said. If she really was a spy Ranma figured she'd be better prepared for a question like that. "You may want to clear things up with Negi though. Anyway, what does Konoka need to protection from? I thought she was from Kyoto."

"Yes, and there are some people who aren't happy that she left," Setsuna answered. "I'm worried they'll try to take her back by force. Please, could you keep an eye out for anything suspicious, and let me know immediately if you find anything."

"I've actually got other stuff on my plate, not sure I'll have much time to help."

Ranma then turned to leave only to be stopped by a hand on her arm.

"Saotome-san," Setsuna began before getting in closer and lowering her voice. "I know that you're not human, but you don't need to worry. I'm not human either. I understand it can make you an outcast, and make you push people away you might not want to. Just know that, at least with me, none of that is necessary."

Setsuna wasn't human? What exactly was she then? Well, it didn't matter much to Ranma. The bigger issue was the girl herself. Ranma may not be the most perceptive person, but she had a pretty strong feeling that Setsuna said all that at least as much for her own benefit as Ranma's. Misery loves company or something.

They probably didn't have nearly as much in common as Setsuna thought, what with Ranma just having a curse rather than being non-human from birth. And if Ranma was ever an outcast it was of her own choosing. Still, first Negi and now Setsuna. It was hard to push people away when they kept coming at you with sob stories. Ranma couldn't quite bring herself to try again to alienate Setsuna, or break it to her that she hadn't found a real non-human after all that talk of being an outcast.

"Look, I don't want to see Konoka or anyone else hurt," Ranma answered. "I'll do what I can to keep an eye out for her on the trip. Now we should get moving before we're left behind."

Her immediate gratitude made Ranma squirm internally a bit. She'd done such a good job for four years of focusing only on her goals. Why did it seem like she was all of a sudden being dragged from one thing to the next? Ah well. At least it wasn't boring.

* * *

Asuna had been worried the Kansai Magic Association would try something, but she hadn't expected them to just pull one prank after another. Well, those perverted monkey shikigami probably went a bit far for a simple prank. Still, were they trying to stop Negi or simply annoy him? If there was good news, it was that Setsuna had turned out not to be a spy and had even helped them with the monkeys. And hearing a bit of her backstory, Asuna was sure that Konoka would be thrilled that the other girl hadn't abandoned her.

But before any of that, they needed to keep her safe. Asuna hadn't realized there were people here in Kyoto that might be after her friend, but they'd have to go through her if they wanted to do anything.

"We should get Ranma too," Negi suggested to their small group.

"Yeah, with her here too, we'd be unstoppable," Chamo added.

"I've actually already spoken to Ranma about Konoka," Setsuna told them. "But I'll go see if I can find her. We are in the same group."

"Great, and I'll keep an eye on Konoka," Asuna promised. "I won't let anything get to her."

"Okay, but call out for me if anything happens," Setsuna requested.

With that Asuna went back to her room, confirming that Konoka was safely in her futon, at least until she got up a moment later to go to the bathroom. Ah well, that couldn't be helped. Not like anything would happen to her in the bathroom.

* * *

Setsuna ran alongside Asuna and Negi, the three of them still soaking wet from the attempt to drown them in the train. The woman who had kidnapped Konoka right out from under them was a short distance ahead, running into the station carrying her prisoner.

"Did Ranma have to pick now to pull this disappearing act?" Asuna complained as they ran into the station themselves.

They didn't have time to worry about that now. Besides, she wasn't sure how much use the girl would be in this scenario. Negi was a mage, and Asuna was his partner, so they should be able to contribute, but she knew nothing of Ranma's fighting abilities. But now, as their target pulled out another charm and created a wall of flames in front of them, Setsuna wondered if even she would be able to do anything about this. They were blocked off from Konoka.

"I'll handle this," Negi declared as he began to chant. Finishing his spell, a strong wind came from nowhere and blew out the flames completely.

"You're better than I thought, but let's see you deal with this," the woman declared, as she summoned what looked like two large stuffed monkeys, but had to be her goki and zenki.

"Asuna, let's take them out quickly before she gets away," Setsuna declared, while Negi wasted no time in activating their pactio to give her magical power.

The pair charged in, Setsuna swinging her sword at the target in front of her, only to have it blocked by a hand that felt like it was made of solid steel. Worse yet, Asuna was swatted away like she was nothing. Something was wrong. The girl's whole attack had been too slow and weak.

"Shouldn't you have more power than that?" Setsuna asked, as she continued slashing at her own target.

"It's because Ane-san didn't kiss him on the lips," Chamo explained. "The pactio isn't at full power."

"This is bad," Setsuna said, wishing she'd known about that fact earlier. Asuna was slowly getting back to her feet, but now the one she was supposed to be fighting was closing in on Setsuna as well.

"It's worse than you think," the kidnapper declared. "I brought a shinmei-ryu swordswoman of my own."

At this a girl about her own age holding twin swords walked out to face them.

"Now, help my goki and zenki hold them off while I get away with the prize."

Her words as she turned to run brought an icy chill to Setsuna. Was she going to fail to protect Konoka-ojou-sama? Just as desperation was starting to set in, Setsuna saw a blur dash out from behind a corner and slam right into the woman. By the time she realized what was happening, the kidnapper was picking herself off from the ground while a new figure now held Konoka.

"Saotome-san!" Setsuna called out in shock.

"Don't worry, I'll get her to safety," the red-haired girl declared, already speeding off away from the group.

"Don't let her get away!" the enemy onmyoji ordered, as her shinmei-ryu swordswoman moved to pursue.

"I won't let you," Setsuna declared as she blocked her path and crossed blades with the other girl.

"Hi, my name is Tsukuyomi. You may be my senpai as a shinmei-ryu, but don't think I'll go easy on you," the other girl declared, slashing at her in a series of attacks.

She was better than Setsuna had expected, so she couldn't afford to hold back, but the exchange stopped quickly when Tsukuyomi's partner in crime gave another order.

"Fall back, Konoka is already gone."

"But I've hardly even started on my fight," Tsukuyomi complained.

"We'll continue this another day," the onmyoji insisted. "There's no point in fighting here."

The two then started to run, the zenki and goki disappearing a moment later. Asuna made to pursue but Setsuna and Negi both stopped her.

"Let them go," Negi declared. "We've already stopped them."

"Yes, we should go check on Ojou-sama," Setsuna agreed.

When Setsuna had asked Ranma for help, she'd wanted an extra pair of eyes and ears; she'd never expected the other girl to actually rescue Konoka. She'd underestimated Ranma, and now she didn't know how she'd be able to repay her. Well, she'd do her best to find a way.

* * *

Setting the still sleeping Konoka down outside the hotel, Ranma waited for the others to return. It was a good thing she'd spotted Konoka being carried off and started following as stealthily as she could. It may have taken a while to get a good opportunity to snatch the girl back, especially when she didn't know what the woman could do, but it had all turned out fine in the end.

Or at least Ranma hoped it had. She was starting to have doubts about having left them alone back there. Ranma was even considering going back for them when the group finally arrived. Setsuna immediately ran up to check on the sleeping Konoka before turning to Ranma and bowing deeply.

"Thank you very much for rescuing Konoka, Saotome-san" she said earnestly. "I don't know what I would have done if something happened to her. If you ever need anything from me, don't hesitate to ask."

"It was nothing," Ranma said sheepishly, wishing she wouldn't make such a big deal about that. "I said I'd keep an eye out for her and I did. That's all. And enough with the Saotome-san. Just call me Ranma."

"Alright, but then you should call me Setsuna," she said.

"Sure, but I already do that," Ranma said with a smirk.

"Anyway," Setsuna said, trying to get back on track, "it means a lot to me. And thank you to everyone else as well. You worked so hard to help me."

"You're welcome, but I'm afraid I wasn't much help," Asuna replied.

"You just need to do the pactio properly this time," Chamo told her. "Then you'll be plenty strong. I'll set up the magic circle, so go for it."

"You mean kiss him on the lips, right here?" Asuna asked, practically in a panic. "What about Ranma and Setsuna? They don't have any pactio, shouldn't they go first?"

"Don't look at us," Ranma said firmly. "We can fight just fine without it."

"If Asuna doesn't want to do this, she doesn't have to," Negi told them.

"Don't tell her that, Aniki," Chamo insisted. "There's no telling when they could come back again. We need to be at full strength."

"Yeah, but we can find a way to do it somehow, if she really hates the idea so much," Negi argued.

"Oh, stop making such a big deal about this, you're just a kid," Asuna finally said, leaning over and giving him a quick kiss on the lips as nonchalantly as she could manage. Then there was a flash of light, and a card appeared in Asuna's hands.

"There, your first real pactio," Chamo declared. "But don't stop with that, you've got two other potential targets right here."

Ranma was about to remind the rodent that he shouldn't include her in that discussion when Konoka began to stir.

"I had the strangest dream," she said, looking up to where Setsuna was now leaning over her. "I was kidnapped by monkeys and you rescued me."

Well, there wouldn't be much more useful discussion in front of Konoka, so it was probably best to sneak off before Konoka got the wrong idea about anything.

"Oh, Ranma, you're here too?" Konoka said, unfortunately spotting her before she'd gotten away. "You've been stopping by a lot lately. It's good to see you making some friends."

"No, I was just passing by," Ranma told her. "Headed back to my room now. That's all."

"Well, stop by again sometime," Konoka told her. "We're more than happy to have you visit. Wait, what am I doing out here?"

Ranma left the others to try to explain that and got away before anyone else stopped her. This was getting to be a pain. Ranma wasn't going to just let someone get hurt if she could stop it, but all this helping people was really starting to ruin her image.

* * *

Chigusa cursed wildly at having her plan foiled like that. The fact that it was a Saotome that had ruined everything only made it worse. Oh, Chigusa knew it probably wasn't one of _those _Saotomes. The girl hadn't used any magic at all, and she doubted any of them would be dumb enough to show up in Kyoto. The name was pretty common, and most people you ran across with it had no connection to anything.

Still, perhaps she could use this to her advantage. There were a few sympathizers in the Kansai Magic Association who still wouldn't go quite so far as to join her. But if she convinced them the western mages had enlisted a Saotome to guard Konoka, they might make themselves useful after all. They could take care of the girl for her and make sure she didn't interfere again.

Yes, Chigusa liked that plan very much.

* * *

Ryoga was finally back in Japan. Or at least all the signs were in Japanese, and Ryoga found that more often than not that meant Japan. Still, he was beginning to despair that he'd never make it to Kyoto. He supposed it was time to ask for directions again, so he could at least find out how close he was. Looking around, the only people Ryoga saw were a large group of schoolgirls standing around in uniform. The uniform did look kind of familiar though.

Ah! A bright red ponytail on the back of one figure caused his mind to instantly remember where. That was the uniform from Ranma's school, and there was Ranma herself. Ryoga could hardly believe his luck. Sure he may be back in Okinawa and still lost, but at least he'd get to see Ranma again. And maybe this time he'd find his way to the train station. It took Ryoga a minute to firm up his nerves, but eventually he made his way over to the girl.

"Um … uh ... Ranma, nice to see you again," he said to get her attention, she turned around but looked at him in confusion.

"Huh, have we met before?" she asked.

Ryoga felt like he'd been kicked in the gut. He'd kind of assumed she would remember him right away. But he supposed they had only talked for a couple of minutes. She might just be bad at remembering faces.

"Who's this boy?" a different red-haired girl asked. "A secret boyfriend. That's quite the scoop coming from someone like you if you've been hiding him from us."

Ryoga blushed at even the thought that he was her boyfriend. She was certainly a great girl who any boy would be lucky to have, but this was only their second time meeting.

"No, there's no way Ranma would have a boyfriend," another girl chimed in as a crowd started to form around them. "Maybe he's her brother or something."

"Will you guys cut it out," Ranma complained. "I don't even know who he is."

"It's me, Hibiki Ryoga," he quickly cut in, desperate to actually get her to remember. "You gave me directions to the train station the last time I was in Okinawa."

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, but I've never been to Okinawa in my life," Ranma told him sharply.

"Well, wherever your school is then. I thought it was Okinawa."

Only the murmurs from the girls crowding around was now shifting in a very different direction.

"He doesn't even know our school is in Tokyo?" one girl asked. "Does he really know Ranma or is he some kind of a con man or something?"

"I don't know, from that look in his eye I think it's more likely he's just crazy."

Ryoga was starting to panic now. For some reason Ranma still didn't seem to remember him. Or maybe she was just embarrassed and didn't want to admit it because of all the attention. Either way, he couldn't let everyone think he was some lunatic. Spotting another face he recognized he turned to a pink-haired girl.

"You, you remember me, right?" he asked. "You were one of that big group of girls that chased me around the campus."

"Chased him around the campus? Is he some kind of pervert they were trying to get rid of or something?" another random girl asked.

"I'm sorry," the pink-haired girl said. "I think you have me confused with someone else. I'm pretty sure I'd remember something like that."

She wouldn't admit to knowing him either? Ryoga was almost starting to wonder if he really had gone insane when some kid pushed his way through the girls and walked up to him. Wait, that was the kid who spilled his experiment all over Ryoga's shirt.

"Everyone, please just wait here and I'll get this sorted out," the boy said, as he grabbed Ryoga's arm and started to pull him away from the group.

"Hold on a minute, Negi-sensei," a tall girl said. "It's not safe for you to go off with him alone. He may be crazy."

"I'm not crazy!" Ryoga insisted loudly. Realizing a moment to late that probably wasn't the best way to convince them of that.

"It'll be fine," the boy they'd called Negi assured them. "I'm certain this is just a misunderstanding. I'll straighten everything out. Just give us some space."

They didn't look happy about, but they did as he'd asked and Ryoga let himself be led a short distance away where they could talk without being overheard.

"I have to apologize to you," the boy then said, bowing deeply. "I'm afraid this is because of that … uh … experiment I spilled on you. It seems one of the side effects is that no one else will actually remember you while it's was still in effect. But don't worry, it would have only lasted a couple of hours at most."

A little bit of liquid could do something like that? It seemed hard to believe, but it explained everything.

"Although could you keep this between us?" Negi asked. "I don't exactly want the details of this to get out."

"And who exactly am I going to tell?" Ryoga asked bitterly. "They already think I'm crazy. If I tried to tell them any of this, they'd have me locked away. And I'd hit it off so well with Ranma the first time. Now she just thinks I'm some raving lunatic."

Ryoga was getting more and more angry about that very fact. First impressions could be very important, and one of the few times he hadn't ruined that aspect, he'd had the whole thing stolen away from him.

"Um, about that ..." Negi began, but Ryoga cut him off instantly.

"I'm done listening to you!" he shouted. "This is all your fault, Negi!"

All but instantly two girls jumped between him and Negi, looking at Ryoga angrily. "How dare you yell at Negi-sensei like that?" the taller of the two asked.

"It's alright, Asuna, Ayaka," Negi told them. "It sort of is my fault."

"Even so, just because you're a brat doesn't mean he can attack you for it," said the girl he believed was Asuna based on whom Negi had turned to when addressed them.

"Wait, I wasn't going to hurt him," Ryoga quickly insisted. It was very tempting, and if he was a few years older things might be different, but whatever he did, he was just a kid.

"You sure looked ready to," Asuna argued. "So why don't you just leave until you've calmed down."

"You think I don't want to?" Ryoga complained. "All I wanted was to find my way to Kyoto, and everything seems to go wrong along the way. But this one really takes the cake."

"Well, at least you found it," Negi told him, looking very much like he was trying to comfort him. A fact that only annoyed him more. Enough that it took him a few seconds to realize what the brat had just said.

"Wait, what do you mean found it?" Ryoga asked.

"Um … you do know this is Kyoto, right?" Ayeka asked.

"I thought I just heard that your school was in Tokyo," Ryoga said in confusion. Were they just messing with him now. Making fun of his trouble with directions?

"We're on our school trip," Asuna told him. "This is definitely Kyoto."

He'd actually found it? Finally some good news. Still, looking over to where Ranma watched impassively from off in the distance, Ryoga couldn't bring himself to be cheerful about it. He wasn't sure what he should do now, but was saved from making a decision when another kid that looked about Negi's age approached them from across the street. This one with black spiky hair he was keeping under a hood.

"You Hibiki Ryoga?" the boy called out.

"That's me," Ryoga confirmed.

"Great, I was supposed to keep an eye out for you," he told Ryoga. "Follow me and I'll show you where we meet."

Well, there didn't seem to be much of a point in staying here and making more of a fool of himself, and being led would save him the trouble of trying to find the place himself. It might even be the best way to help keep his mind off this fiasco, so he didn't die from embarrassment.

"Lead the way," he said, urging the boy on before any of the angry looking girls decided not to let him go. No one did stop him, and soon they were well away from that place.

"Oh, sorry, I know your name but I haven't given you mine," the boy said. "I'm Inugami Kotaro."

"Nice to meet you," Ryoga said politely. "So do you know what this is all about? I just got a letter from my father telling me to show up here because an old friend's daughter needed help. It didn't say what it was about."

"Wait, you don't know why you're here?" Kotaro asked. "Then why'd you show up there of all places?"

"Just coincidence I guess?" Ryoga speculated, not sure what the boy was referring to.

"Well, if you don't know, I'm going to let Chigusa explain it. I don't really care about the details anyway. Just hoping for a good fight."

Not much was said the rest of the trip, but they arrived soon enough at a rather large home that wasn't too far short of a manor. Entering, the pair came upon a long-haired woman with glasses.

"Hey, Chigusa, looks like Ryoga here finally showed up," Kotaro told her.

"Oh, excellent," she said cheerfully. "I would have preferred your father, but he assures me you're quite the fighter yourself."

"Yeah, um, who exactly are we fighting, and why?" Ryoga asked. "No one has explained anything to me yet."

"Well then, allow me," she told him. "It all comes down to Konoe Konoka, who was spirited away by to Tokyo by the western mages years ago. Her heritage is in eastern magic, and now that they foolishly brought her to Kyoto, we're going to get her back."

"Wait, mages, magic?" Ryoga said with a laugh. "This is some kind of a game you're talking about, right? I don't know how much I can help you in that case. I've never really been into games."

"Huh, you don't know about magic?" Kotaro asked him.

"That's preposterous," Chigusa insisted. "He's not even human, and his father fought in the war twenty years ago."

"What, just because I'm not human, I'm supposed to believe in fairy tales?" Ryoga asked, beginning to wonder if they were picking on him. And he didn't even know what war she was talking about. He'd never heard about any war from his father. Granted they didn't see each other nearly as much as Ryoga would like, but that was the sort of thing he'd have thought would have come up.

"It's not just that you aren't human, you're actually disguised as one right now," Chigusa pointed out, sounding quite frustrated now.

"Lots of animals can disguise themselves as other creatures," Ryoga explained. "You don't just assume it's magic, do you?"

"But you can actually transform … oh forget it," Chigusa said cutting herself off mid-sentence and pulling out what appeared to be a charm. Almost before he realized it, two large stuffed monkeys appeared out of nowhere. Just as surprising, they began to move around.

"Now, can I safely assume you're not going to doubt magic exists anymore?" Chigusa asked him.

Ryoga was dumbfounded. Proof of actual magic, right in front of his eyes? He still wanted to believe it was a trick, but his father's letter had sounded pretty serious. He didn't think he would send him here just to have a prank pulled on him.

"You'd better get used to the idea of magic too," she told him. "There's a mage guarding Konoka, a brat by the name of Negi Springfield."

"Wait, did you say Negi?" Ryoga asked. "A foreign kid with glasses?"

"Yeah, he's the guy you were talking to when I found you," Kotaro confirmed for him.

So that kid was a mage? Which means that thing he'd spilled on Ryoga had been some kind of magic potion? It actually made a lot of sense. And he was involved in kidnapping some poor girl too? Come to think of it, those girls had kept calling him sensei, despite him being a kid much younger than them. Did he have them all under some spell to fool them into thinking he was their teacher? Who knew what terrible plans he had in store for Ranma and the rest.

"I'm in. Let's put a stop to him!" Ryoga declared firmly.

"Perfect," Chigusa said with a smile. "I'll have a job for you soon enough."

* * *

The next day, the groups were left to explore Kyoto on their own. If their little group "coincidentally" kept picking the same places for their sightseeing as the one Konoka was in and Negi was traveling with, no one seemed to complain. They actually did a pretty decent job of not being noticed by the other group, which was a bit of surprise given that rather than sightseeing, Chao was trying to sell her meat buns to other tourists wherever they went.

Zazie just followed along, hardly saying a word, and Ranma was at a loss to tell just how the girl felt on trip in the first place. As for the day itself, it was uneventful, at least as far as how nobody attempted to kidnap Konoka again. Negi and Honya probably didn't consider it uneventful what with that confession and all. Well, it was no business of Ranma's, so she put that out of her mind, and soon enough the day of sightseeing was over.

Setsuna and Ranma then split up to make sure the building was clear. After a quick check, Ranma went back to group six's room to meet up with Setsuna, finding she'd beat the other girl back, but Chao and Zazie were already there.

"Welcome back," Chao told her. "Enjoying the excitement yet? If not, it gets even better from here."

Wait, she was talking about the trip, right? It almost sounded like she knew something about the Konoka situation. No, Ranma had to be imagining things. Either way, Setsuna chose that moment to show up. Ranma immediately went over to the door, where they could hopefully talk without being overheard by the other two.

"Asuna and I finished our patrols and didn't find anything," she told Ranma. "I've also strengthened the barriers around the hotel."

"Clear on my end too, but we should probably take another look around," Ranma suggested.

"My thoughts exactly," Setsuna agreed. "And I'd like to thank you again for all your help."

"You can stop thanking me over every little thing," Ranma grumbled lightly, but cut off her discussion when she heard someone approaching. Asakura now stood by the still open door.

"What do you want?" Ranma asked.

"Oh, we're just playing a little game and need a couple of participants from group six," she explained.

"And just what kind of game is it?" Chao asked with interest.

"A competition for Negi-kun's lips," she answered. "Each group gets a two person team in a race to be the first one to get a kiss from our young sensei. So which two are you sending?"

"I'm having nothing to do with this," Ranma said flatly. Ranma didn't know how, but she had to bet that little rat Chamo had something to do with this.

"I'm sorry, but I simply couldn't tonight," Setsuna answered herself, looking away awkwardly and blushing.

"I'm afraid I won't be joining in either," Chao said apologetically. "It'd be kind of weird if I played along with this one."

"I'll pass," Zazie answered, making it a unanimous no for their group.

"Aw come on guys, don't be like that," Asakura complained. "All the other groups are participating. Where's your pride?"

"I have plenty of pride in the fact that I'm having nothing to do with such a stupid event," Ranma insisted.

"It is a bit much to be making a competition out of kissing like this," Setsuna agreed. "And this really is a bad night for me."

With no one caving in, Asakura quickly gave up. "Well, I figured there'd be a good chance I couldn't get a pair out of this group, but I didn't expect to be completely turned down. Well, there's going to be a betting pool, so stop by if you're at least interested in that."

"Sure, whatever," Ranma declared, trying to convince her to leave as soon as possible so they could get back to the job at hand. There was no way Ranma was having anything to do with this.

* * *

Well, group six was a bust, but Asakura wasn't really surprised. She was sure there was a story as to why Chamo offered her a bonus if she got Ranma to participate, and she was going to look into that soon enough. Still, he had to realize it was a lost cause from the start. For now, since all the contestants were picked, she was explaining to everyone the full setup of the contest. This included the rules and an explanation of how she set up cameras to observe. It was when showing off the camera setup that Fuka interrupted.

"Ah! Ranma and Setsuna are leaving their room together. I thought you said they weren't participating."

"They don't even have pillows," her sister, Fumika, pointed out. "They're probably leaving for a different reason."

"Or it could just be a trick so no one thinks to stop them!" Fuka insisted. "Maybe they're planning to skip the game completely and beat us all to the kiss."

"What? That's despicable!" Ayaka complained. "We can't let them get away with that!"

"Yeah!" Makie agreed loudly. "Come on, we've got to go now so we can still stop them!"

Asakura was sure they were simply jumping to conclusions, but the rules had already been explained, and she doubted she could have stopped them as the contestants rushed off. Ah well, this could be fun to watch anyway.

* * *

Ranma had continued patrolling around looking for anything unusual. She'd thought they might need to take turn sleeping so they'd always have someone alert for intruders, but Setsuna was convinced that at this point her barrier was strong enough that if anyone broke through it would wake her. So as long as they made sure nothing dangerous was already inside, none of them would need to interrupt their sleep. So Ranma started to focus on sensing any nearby magic, only to be interrupted by a cry.

"There you are," Fuka cried out, somehow making it clear she wanted to shout that despite keeping the volume down. "We won't let you get to Negi first."

A moment later, Ranma had to dodge an attack from Ku Fei using a pillow, of all things, as a weapon.

"This isn't about that stupid game, is it?" Ranma asked. "I already said I'm not playing."

"Like we'd believe you," Fuka snapped back, launching into an attack of her own.

"Whether you're playing or not, fighting you should make for a fun challenge," Ku Fei added, sending another pillow encased fist her way that Ranma narrowly weaved around.

With Kaede and Fumika looking like they could get involved at any time as well, Ranma decided this was more trouble than it was worth. She didn't want anything to happen to Konoka while she goofing around here, so her best option was to simply get out of here. Turning around, Ranma sprinted down the hall away from the group, nearly colliding with Setsuna as she ran out from around the corner.

"We won't let you get away with such underhanded tactics," Ayaka called out as she ran toward them from around the corner, Yuna and Makie running along with her.

"They're after you too?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, and they won't listen to reason," Setsuna answered. "Any ideas?"

"Yeah, I have one," Ranma said with a smirk. "Just get ready to run for it."

It was pretty obvious why they were all keeping their voices down, and Ranma decided to throw a wrench in their plans, quickly smacking her hands together repeatedly in the loudest clapping she could manage.

"Who's making that racket?" Nitta called out, causing their pursuers to stop in their tracks, panicked looks on all their faces.

"Run for it," Makie announced as the entire group began to scatter.

Ready for this result, Ranma was a step ahead of them, and soon lost sight of everyone. Hopefully Setsuna had been just as successful in getting away. Either way, she was alone again, so Ranma tried to stay out of sight and sense for any nearby magic. She picked up something pretty strong nearby almost immediately. Hurrying to the source, and worrying over what it might be, she found it was none other than Negi.

False alarm. Although it was kind of strange. Ranma didn't go sensing magic all the time or anything, but she'd thought Negi's magic felt different, and quite a bit stronger. Maybe he was just holding back or something though.

"Ranma," he greeted upon seeing her. "I'm glad I ran into you. I don't know how to ask this, but can I kiss you?"

Ranma's anger flashed that he seemed to be going along with Chamo's idiocy this time, but held it in check. Something still seemed off. The person who'd been eavesdropping on their conversation, however, did nothing to hold back her own feelings.

"Wait! Don't do it Negi-sensei!" she cried out, revealing herself and running toward them. "Don't you know I'm the one who loves you? You should kiss me instead!"

"Okay," Negi said simply.

Her expression did an instant 180 as that one word turned it to joy.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ranma warned, pretty sure now that something was off, but still not knowing what it was.

"You're not going to stop me," Ayaka quickly declared, quickly going for the kiss as if Ranma might jump in her way or something.

They were both in for a surprise though when her lips met Negi's, as there was a huge burst of smoke, that buffeted Ranma, and did more than that to Ayaka judging from her lying motionless on the floor when the smoke cleared. Ranma quickly checked that she was alright before trying to figure out what just happened. She soon got her answer as she spotted a piece of paper on the floor.

So it was a shikigami? That explained why he'd felt off. But who created it, and why? Was this an infiltration attempt? And was this is or were there more of these things around? Did she have to suspect everyone as a fake now? Ranma then saw another figure that looked like Negi walking into view down the hallway. Turning its head and seeing her holding the paper, it suddenly took off in a run. Ranma followed in quick pursuit.

"Get back here!" she called out after it as they ran into the next room, Ranma only then realizing she wasn't alone.

The twins, the Kaede /Ku Fei team, and Makie were all present, looking like they'd just been interrupted from another pillow fight.

"Ah, I knew she was after a kiss all along," Fuka declared.

"What? No!" Ranma insisted. "It's nothing like that. That Negi is a fake."

"If you're going to lie, at least come up with something believable," Makie declared, only to have two more Negi lookalikes walk into the room from different directions, stunning them all for a moment.

"Ah, it doesn't really matter if they're real or not," Ku Fei declared. "I still won't let you have your way, aru. I'll hold Ranma off, you win this for us, Kaede."

"Ah, this is kind of embarrassing," Kaede said, but looked like she was about to go ahead with it, as she grabbed onto a nearby fake Negi.

Ranma was really getting annoyed by all this interference, but this might be the perfect chance to get rid of the most troublesome of them, Ku Fei. Ranma dashed toward the pair of them, trying to weave around Ku Fei to get to Kaede. As expected, the blonde martial artist blocked her path every time. Still, Ranma continued her efforts until, just as planned, Ku Fei found herself backed up right next to Kaede. This happened just as the tall girl gave a quick peck to the suppose Negi's forehead.

Just as with Ayaka, the shikigami exploded, leaving both of those next to it unconscious. What happened next was pure chaos. Not in the least bit discouraged by the result, her classmates chased down and kissed the remaining two fakes, even as Nitta-sensei showed up. Somehow, their teacher was knocked out in the fiasco as well, and Ranma was the only one left standing in the room.

Confirming that nobody was seriously hurt, Ranma gathered up the papers and decided to get out of there. She was pretty sure Nitta hadn't spotted her, but Ranma didn't want to be around when he woke up. Looking around for any more fakes, Ranma soon bumped into Asuna.

"You _are_ the real Asuna, right?" she asked a bit suspiciously.

"Of course I'm the real Asuna. What kind of question is that?" she asked, before spotting the papers in her hand. "Hey, those look like the things Setsuna gave Negi."

"Wait, Negi used these?" Ranma asked. "Well, at least it's a relief to know that monkey chick wasn't behind this."

"Let me guess, whatever he did blew up on him and created a mess?" Asuna asked with a sigh.

"Heh, well, you can certainly say that," Ranma told her. "I guess I should get back to looking for real threats."

Ranma didn't find any such thing, although she did manage to glimpse Honya winning the contest thanks to a well-timed trip by Yue. Although the real highlight of the night was seeing Asakura and everyone else who'd been making nuisances of themselves having been caught by Nitta and left to squat in the lobby. Sure Negi might have got stuck with that too, but after those stupid shikigami, Ranma didn't feel too sorry for him.

As for Ranma, once she was convinced everything was fine, she went back to her room and enjoyed a good night's sleep.

* * *

Setsuna woke to find herself the last of her group to do so. There was no sign of Zazie or Chao anywhere, and Ranma had already changed into a plain shirt and a rather shabby set of sweatpants. Setsuna quickly got up and began preparing for the day herself as she went over their plans with Ranma.

"Negi and Asuna are going to take the letter to the Kansai Magic Guild today," she informed her. "I don't want to risk taking Konoka there, so I was hoping you would help me protect her during free time today."

"Sure thing," Ranma answered. "Not like I had any plans to go sightseeing or anything."

Before she could plan anything out in more detail, the door opened, giving them a view of Konoka.

"There you are, Secchan," she called out. "Are you ready to go? You haven't forgotten you promised to spend today with me, have you?"

"I didn't forget," Setsuna quickly answered. "But if you don't mind, could Ranma come along as well?"

Setsuna did her best to silently convey how much this meant to her, because she really hoped for the help in protecting her ojou-sama. Konoka looked at them both speculatively for a moment before smiling brightly. "Of course she can. I'm glad to see both of you making more friends. Now let's all have a great time today."

As she practically dragged the pair out of the room after her and began discussing everything they could do, Setsuna realized there'd probably be a lot of sightseeing, whether Ranma was hoping for it or not.

* * *

Setsuna's miniature shikigami was right. They were trapped in a loop with no apparent way out. He'd expected to be attacked again, but not for them to set a trap like this. How were he and Asuna going to deliver the letter now? Just when he was thinking that, someone else walked up to their small group.

"Ryoga?" Negi asked, surprised to see the boy again. "What are you doing here?"

"Negi Springfield, I hope you're prepared to pay for your crimes!" Ryoga shouted angrily.

"Crimes, what crimes are you talking about?" Asuna asked.

"To start with he used magic on me to make everyone forget me!" Ryoga complained.

"Yes, and I'm really sorry about that," Negi said honestly. "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Like I'd believe your lies!" Ryoga shouted. "I know what you've really been up to. That was just the tip of the iceberg. And who knows what else you've done to those poor girls you tricked into thinking you were their teacher."

"What? I haven't tricked anyone; I really am their teacher!" Negi complained, only to have a fist slammed into his gut that sent him flying back and almost cracked through his barriers.

"Hey! You leave Negi alone!" Asuna cried out before turning to Negi himself. "Quick, power me up."

Recovered from the surprise attack, Negi did just that, as his magic flowed in Asuna and the fan artifact of hers appeared in her hands. Ryoga was already moving in for another attack, but Asuna intercepted him, slamming her fan into his head. But the boy just shrugged it off, not even slowing as he barreled forward and hit Negi with another punch. This time his barriers did break from the impact. They'd absorbed enough of it that Negi got nothing more than a few minor bruises as he hit the ground after the punch, but if he took another blow like that, he might not even survive it.

And Setsuna's shikigami had disappeared at some point, so something must be wrong on their end too. Asuna tried a few more attacks on Ryoga in retaliation, but nothing seemed to faze the boy. As Ryoga began advancing again, she tried another tactic, latching on to Ryoga from behind, planting her feet and trying to physically prevent him from advancing. Surprisingly, he did come to a stop as Asuna continued to bear hug him from behind, his face turning red as if straining from the effort. Negi didn't think Asuna was that strong.

As Asuna continued to hold Ryoga back, they got their second surprise visitor, as Nodoka walked up to them while reading a book of some sort.

"Asuna, Ryoga is embarrassed about having your breasts pressed against his back," she declared, inexplicably seeming to grasp the situation instantly. "If you continue to distract him you may be able to win."

"That's perfect!" Chamo cried out. "Dial it up, Ane-san. Just give him a good strip show and he won't be able to do a thing while Aniki beats him up."

"There's no way I'm doing something like that!" Asuna yelled back, actually releasing Ryoga and backing away.

"Y-yeah, don't even suggest it," Ryoga yelled, his face now turning redder than Negi thought a human face could go.

"Also, make sure he's nice and close to the action. Oh, and when you take off your panties, don't forget to stuff them in his face, give him a good smell."

"What kind of a pervert do you think I am?" Asuna complained, followed quickly by a loud thump as Ryoga fell flat on his back. Chamo ran over to the boy and looked him over.

"The stimulation must have been too much for him. He's out cold," Chamo told them, pulling out a cigarette and starting to smoke. "Looks like good ol' Chamo won this fight on his own."

"I have to say I'm disappointed," said another voice, as the boy who had led Ryoga away from the hotel walked up to them.

Is that all western mages can do? You were completely outclassed until you won with a cheap trick. Instead of you I'd much rather be fighting Ryoga there. Well, I guess I can do that when he wakes up. I suppose you can be a warm up if nothing else.

This wasn't good. There was another of them right after dealing with Ryoga. If he were anywhere near as strong as the other boy, Negi couldn't afford to hold anything back. He'd have to go all out right from the start. He just hoped Setsuna and Ranma were having an easier time than they were.

* * *

Setsuna was glad Konoka hadn't seen the blades thrown at them that her two companions had blocked, but it had put a stop to them letting Konoka lead them around. Now Setsuna was pulling Konoka along as the three of them ran, hoping to lose whomever had been chasing them.

"Oh, you should have just told me you wanted to go to Cinema Town," Konoka told her suddenly.

Setsuna hadn't even paid attention to where they were going, but sure enough, that's where they were. Actually, this could be the perfect place to hide. It's unlikely they would attack with everyone around.

"This way," she told Ranma, as she picked up Konoka and jumped over the wall.

Ranma followed behind and soon they were all inside. With no sign of any further attacks, Setsuna focused on trying to get back in contact with the shikigami she'd sent with Negi, but the attempt proved futile. Their enemies had cut her off completely. Turning her attention back to the matter at hand, she saw that Konoka had actually changed into an elaborate kimono and done up her hair while she was distracted.

"How do I look, Secchan, Ranma?" she asked.

"Fine I guess," Ranma said with a shrug. "But I don't know the first thing about clothes or fashion."

"You look … uh … beautiful," Setsuna stuttered out, and it was true. She even found herself getting flustered for some reason.

"Great, now you next, Secchan. I'll pick out an outfit for you," she said enthusiastically.

"I really don't think clothes like that will suit me," Setsuna protested, but was shoved along anyway, and soon found herself being handed a set of male clothes from a Shinsengumi costume. Well, in some ways this wasn't so bad, but it still felt a bit strange as she put it on. Then she was led back outside and all but presented to Ranma.

"Doesn't this really suit her?" Konoka asked.

"It looks like it would be pretty easy to fight in," Ranma said simply.

"I still don't see why I'm wearing men's clothing," Setsuna said, slightly embarrassed by the situation.

"That just leaves you, Ranma," Konoka declared. "Let's get you a costume."

"I suppose I could try on one of those costume's Setsuna is wearing," Ranma said, although clearly not enthusiastic about dressing up.

"Denied," Konoka said firmly. "I'm getting you a kimono, like mine."

"What! No way!" Ranma protested. "If Setsuna gets to wear men's clothing, then I certainly should get to."

"Your uniform is the only thing I've ever seen you in even remotely feminine," Konoka pointed out, as she looked over the plain red shirt and old sweatpants Ranma was wearing. "You need to dress up every once in a while. Besides, I think Secchan will like you better this way."

"Like me better?" Ranma asked. "Just why would she care about my clothes in the first place? Either way, I'm still not doing it."

Konoka ignored her protests and tried to drag her toward the changing room, but Ranma stood firm and didn't budge an inch.

"You should just go along with her," Setsuna suggested. "She won't give up once she gets an idea in her head. Besides, is it really any worse than the school uniform you always wear?"

"See, Secchan does want to see you in it," Konoka declared, still trying futilely to pull Ranma along.

"This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to avoid," Ranma grumbled. "But if you promise not tell anyone about this, I'll do it just to get you to stop pestering me about it."

"I won't tell anyone, I swear," Konoka answered. "Now come on."

Ranma finally let herself be dragged along, although Setsuna could hear her complaining about the selection from outside. Soon enough, Konoka was shoved outside.

"I can at least change on my own," Ranma said.

Konoka then stood guard by the entrance, and a short while later ran back in. "You can't come out yet, you're not ready."

Another short wait and the pair of them returned. Ranma was now dressed up just as elaborately as Konoka. Furthermore, she assumed her ojou-sama had stopped Ranma so she could take the hair out of the simple ponytail Ranma usually kept it in and style it in a similar fashion to how she'd done her own hair.

"So, what do you think of a pair of cute girls like us?" Konoka asked, leaning against an annoyed looking Ranma and smiling.

It really was quite the transformation too. It was hard to believe it was actually Ranma standing in front of her. Setsuna had said it would be no worse than the school uniform, but there was really no comparison between the two.

"You're both stunning," she said, meaning every word. The outfits suited them both greatly, and Setsuna was somehow finding herself even more out of sorts with both of them there than when it had been just Konoka.

"I still think I should be wearing the men's clothing," Ranma complained.

"No," Konoka said firmly. "It has to be this way."

"It's fine to be that way, but isn't it a bit greedy to want both of them?" her classmate Haruna said, appearing seemingly from nowhere.

"What are you doing here?" Setsuna and Ranma cried out pretty much in unison, Ranma sounding just as mortified as Setsuna felt to be seen like this.

"But there may be trouble in paradise if they're already arguing over roles," Asakura chimed in, appearing next to their other classmate. "Although I may have to agree with Ranma. She does seem the least feminine of the group."

"But she seemed pretty interested in Negi-sensei during the game last night," Haruna pointed out. "Maybe this role is better for her."

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Ayaka asked, walking up from behind along with Yue, Chizuru, Chisame, and Natsumi, only adding to Setsuna's embarrassment now that there was a larger crowd of classmates.

"You're so slow, Iincho," Haruna declared.

"Of course we'll support you if this is what you want," Asakura then declared. "But are the three of you really okay with this?"

"If it makes Secchan happy," Konoka answered.

"Don't going throwing fuel on the fire," Ranma complained. "There seems to be some kind of big misunderstanding going on here."

But it was a misunderstanding they'd have to address later, as two men dressed as Shinto priests approached them with dark looks on their faces.

"That's her, Saotome Ranma," one of them pointed.

"What do you want with Ranma?" Setsuna asked, getting a bad feeling about this.

"Stay out of this," he ordered. "We don't want to hurt you or Konoka-sama. We're just after the Saotome brat."

"Is this some kind of a show?" Natsumi asked, although Setsuna knew it was no such thing.

"I'm not leaving Ranma to you," Setsuna insisted. "You'll have to fight me too if you want to harm her."

"Don't, Setsuna," Ranma ordered. "If they're only after me then I should handle this alone. Who's going to protect Konoka if we're both distracted by them?"

"That's too dangerous," Setsuna argued. She thought she might even recognize this pair as Onmyoji from the Kansai Magic Association. That would make sense considering the Konoko-sama bit.

"Don't worry, I don't even need to beat them, just get away," Ranma assured her. "Leave this to me."

Setsuna still wasn't convinced this was the right idea, but while she hesitated, Ranma had already run off at full speed, with the two men in quick pursuit. She'd lost her chance to do anything. She couldn't leave Konoka here, and there was no way should keep up while carrying the girl. She just hoped Ranma could take care of herself. All she could do now was watch out for Konoka for the both of them.

* * *

Ranma quickly left Cinema Town behind, but hadn't yet managed to lose her pursuers. She cursed ever getting talked into wearing this Kimono. It was more restrictive than her own outfit, especially in that her tail wasn't given any freedom in the back. She also had her stuff jostling around in her sleeves threatening to come loose since the stupid thing didn't even have pockets.

'It wasn't much worse than a school uniform?' Well that might be true, but she shouldn't have let the dean talk her into that one either. After this mess was over, Ranma was going to have to start putting her foot down more firmly. What would her father think if he saw her now? Handicapping herself in a fight so she dress up in girly clothes?

For now though, she needed to focus on these two. Since she couldn't get away, she'd just have to beat them down. Changing direction, she turned back toward to charge one of her opponents, only to be tackled from the side by a dog almost as big as she was. It had a friend just as oversized that was now circling her as well, and Ranma could see it was being directed by a third priest that was stepping out from hiding. This day just kept getting better and better.

The other two onmyoji, as she now knew they were, summoned their own zenki and goki, the four taking on a variety of suitably demonic looking shapes.

"Okay, you want to make it six on one? Well come on then?" Ranma taunted as all the summoned beasts charged in.

Having the odds stacked that much against her wasn't ideal, but none of these were too exceptionally strong. What's more they had horrible teamwork, often being the victim of their allies blows as Ranma danced around and fought them. It was pretty clear she was going to win this, especially when she took the first one of them out completely, a demon that was little more than skeleton despite having some kind of thin brown flesh around it's bony shape that disappeared in a puff of smoke after a vicious kick to it's ribcage.

Still, Ranma got the sudden feeling that something was very wrong, and realized that there'd been chanting going on in the background during that fight. How could she be so stupid. It wasn't six on one; it was nine on one. Abandoning the five remaining demons, Ranma dashed toward one of the onmyoji, but had only gone a few feet when she slammed into an invisible wall. They'd put up a barrier!

Checking in every direction, she discovered she was trapped in a pyramid shaped barrier that was a little more than her wingspan wide from where she was standing. She tried quickly to smash through it with no luck.

"It's useless," one of them declared before he began chanting again.

The barrier now began to physically glow, causing Ranma to shrink away from it. Her efforts didn't exactly pay off, as a moment later her body was hit with some kind of intense energy and everything went black.

* * *

Setsuna was glad to learn everything had worked out on Negi's end as well. After she'd fought off another attempt to kidnap Konoka, and had an arrow-wound treated magically by her ojou-sama without the other girl even realizing that fact, she'd had time to hear more of what happened on Negi's end. With the help of Nodoka's new artifact, they'd managed to defeat one of their opponents and fight off the other long enough to escape the loop they were trapped in.

Now both groups were together in Konoka's home enjoying her father's hospitality. But there was still no sign of Ranma. They'd even called back to the hotel, but no one there had seen her either. Setsuna never should have let Ranma run off like that. The red-haired girl had done nothing but help Setsuna, and in return, Setsuna couldn't even help her when she needed it most.

Konoka's father had confirmed the men she'd seen were part the Kansai Magic Association, but he didn't have a clue where they were or how to find them. Setsuna swore that if they'd harmed Ranma in any way, she'd make them pay when they were found, but beyond that, she just wanted her friend to be safe.

* * *

Ranma woke to the sound of voices talking. Her mind quickly recalling her previous moments of consciousness, she kept as still as possible to not give away that she was awake. Risking opening one eye a sliver, she saw that the men didn't appear to be looking her way, so examined her surroundings to see she was lying on the floor in a room about the size of your average bedroom.

"We should just kill her," one of the men declared, making Ranma's heart race as she stretched her leg out as stealthily as should could.

It bumped into the edge of a barrier, so as she expected, she was still trapped. So she put her leg back to where it was so they wouldn't notice she'd moved it.

"She's just a kid," the second one declared. "She hasn't done anything to us. We should just use her as bait."

"A good plan if it works," the final member of their group said. "But I don't think she's even related. In all that fighting did you see a bit of magic? I'd wager Chigusa just tricked us into doing her dirty work for us."

"What? You think she'd go that far?" the guy who'd wanted to kill her asked in surprise.

"I wouldn't put anything past her," the one who'd suggested it said. "But I'm going to find out. Why don't you keep watch on the prisoner until we figure out just who we actually have?"

"I'm coming with you," the bait proposer declared following along. "If this was a trick, I want a piece of the payback."

Well, on the plus side that left just one of them. Fat lot of good that did her trapped in this barrier. All she could do is hope she could break through this thing by force. Getting ready to leap up and do just that, she felt a shift in the sleeve of the kimono she was still wearing. It seemed she hadn't lost everything she'd been carrying when they transported her here.

But what was she going to do? Bribe them with some loose change and the string she used to tie her hair into ponytail? Oh she did have that cube Chao had given her. She was glad now that she'd taken that challenge for the meal tickets. If she could convince that guy it was a bomb maybe she could trick him into letting her go.

Heh, or maybe she could just press the thing. Chao had said to use it when she really needed it. Ranma doubted she'd ever need help more than now. It was tempting to try, but that would be silly. It probably just played some upbeat music meant to cheer her up or something. That would make it a lot harder to convince the guy it was a bomb.

Still, Ranma was curious now if it would actually do anything this time. Of course she'd tried the button before and nothing had happened, just as Chao had told her. So maybe whatever timer or trick she'd put in wouldn't even have activated it yet anyway. Or maybe it would help her in some way after all. Send out a distress signal or something.

Ranma still thought this was a bad idea, but before better sense could win out again, she'd slipped the thing out of her sleeve and pressed the button. The barrier glowed brightly, and Ranma thought she was about to get another zap when it appeared to shatter. Ranma didn't even pause to consider how impossible that should be, leaping to her feat and attacking the man in front of her.

"How did ..." was all he get out before Ranma clocked him on the side of the head, leaving him to drop bonelessly to the ground.

"Kill me, will you," she spat out, before moving cautiously to the next room.

Seems like the three that had captured her weren't alone, and Ranma didn't want to waste the element of surprise. Slipping around one corner, she found herself face-to-face with a purple-haired girl about her own age. On the floor next to her were the unmoving form of her other two assailants.

"Ah, how you escape by self?" the girl asked in heavily accented and somewhat broken Japanese.

"That's my little secret," Ranma answered, getting into a defensive posture. "Now are you the one who sent these guys after me?"

Maybe they'd had their little disagreement already and it didn't go their way.

"No, Shampoo want … uh … rescue you," she answered.

It could be a trick, but she hadn't heard any discussion. Looked like these guys had been taken by surprise. Well, Ranma would give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

"Now Shampoo want … uh … what word again?" she said furrowing her brow in frustration. "Ah, stupid Japanese. You no speak Chinese?"

"Fraid not."

Sighing, the girl Ranma guessed was named Shampoo reached for a small bag tied to her hip, pulled out a tube with some green liquid in it, removed the cork, and guzzled the contents before going into a coughing fit.

"You alright?" Ranma asked with a bit of concern.

"Yes, but I hate using that potion," she answered, all hints of so much as an accent gone. "It's by far the vilest thing I've ever tasted. But at least it will let us communicate properly for a little while."

However bad it tasted, that was a pretty neat little potion judging by the sudden turnaround in her speech.

"Not that I'm ungrateful, but why would you want to rescue me?" Ranma asked. "I have no idea who you are."

"Only because of Hibiki Ryoga," she answered. "I'd like to hear more about him, and he seemed to know you when I spied on the two of you talking back at the hotel."

"Well, I don't know a whole lot," Ranma admitted. "Supposedly we'd met once before, but thanks to a magical mix-up by the midget Ryoga was yelling at, I don't actually remember it."

"That's a shame," Shampoo said. "Still, even if you'd only met once, I'd wager you made quite the impression on him based on how he acted. That could still prove useful."

"So, why do you want to find out about Ryoga anyway?" Ranma asked, a little curious as to why someone would rescue a stranger just to gossip about someone she apparently didn't know much about.

"He defeated me in combat," Shampoo answered.

"Ah, so you want a rematch," Ranma said with a nod. She could certainly understand that motivation.

"No. That's not it," she said. "Normally I'd have to give the kiss of marriage to any outsider male that defeated me, but since Ryoga isn't human, my great-grandmother gave me a choice."

Ranma kind of wanted to point out how crazy that sounded, but didn't know whether she should be more concerned with the fact that Ryoga wasn't human or the part about marrying based on a losing a fight. Well, actually it was pretty easily the marrying part that was stranger, but Shampoo had already continued.

"I can give him the kiss of marriage or the kiss of death," she said. "I'm trying to decide which I want to give."

"And this kiss of death?" Ranma asked a little hesitantly. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means I would have to hunt him to the ends of earth until I'd killed him," Shampoo answered matter-of-factly.

Of course that's what it meant. Because the girl didn't sound crazy enough already.

"Now come with me," she ordered. "I have something I want to try with Ryoga and I need your help."

"I'd love to help you, but I've got friends in trouble I need to get back to," Ranma told her, already worrying about what had happened while she was out of it.

"It won't take much time," she insisted. "He's on the other side of the building."

"What?" Ranma asked in surprise. "He working with these guys or something?"

"It seems that way."

Okay, Ranma would at least stop by and see what was going on. Especially since she had an inkling this might be related to the Konoka kidnapping. More onmyoji showing up at just the right time to get Ranma away from Konoka? Way too convenient.

With Ranma following, they made their way down the hall. As they neared the other end Shampoo began pantomiming for quiet. Peeking around the corner, Shampoo then started to rifle through that small bag again. Ranma took a look around the corner herself, confirming Ryoga was lounging in a chair in the other room.

Seeing Shampoo still messing with the bag, Ranma wondered how hard it could be to find something in such a small bag. But soon she pulled out three small items that looked to be little headless stick figures or something made out of bamboo.

"My great-grandmother gave me these," Shampoo told her in a whisper. "They are strong magical fighters that will follow my every command. This should make for a good test for Ryoga."

Next, she pulled out a single needle and pricked her finger, squeezing a drop of blood on to each one, and causing them to grow to be about six feet tall, still looking exactly the same other than their size.

"You already know he's a strong fighter, right?" Ranma asked. "What is sending these after Ryoga going to tell you."

"You're confused on one point," Shampoo replied before turning to the newly enlarged created. "You three, attack this girl."

While Ranma was still flatfooted from the shock, Shampoo gave Ranma a quick shove, forcing her into the next room.

"Ranma!" Ryoga said as she stumbled into the room, before looking over the fancy kimono she was still dressed in. "You look great in that and all, but … um … why are you here?"

"Now's not the time for that," Ranma said quickly, turning around to face the magic constructs that now advanced on her.

Ranma gave the front one a quick kick, hoping to break it in two before it could try anything. It drove it back a few steps, but didn't otherwise harm it. Whatever it was made of it, it was much stronger than bamboo. Now the next one of the set moved closer, its whole upper body beginning spin rapidly, making the arms look as if they were two blades on a giant fan. Blades that rapidly tilted up and down to make their approach less predictable.

"Leave her alone or you'll be facing me!" Ryoga yelled jumping in front of Ranma.

"Stop!" Shampoo ordered, walking into the room herself.

"You!" Ryoga said. "You followed me all the way to Japan?"

"Yes, but this isn't about you," she told him. "I'm after the girl, so stay out of this."

"No!" Ryoga said firmly. "I'm not letting you hurt Ranma."

"I'll make you a deal," Shampoo offered. "Walk away and pretend you never saw this, and I'll stop chasing you. You'll never see me again."

"I refuse!" Ryoga shouted.

Ranma was getting a little confused as to what Shampoo was doing. First she was after Ryoga, now she was telling Ryoga to stay out of it. Who was she tricking and why?

"Continue your attack," Shampoo ordered. "If the boy gets in your way, deal with him as well."

"Look out!" Ryoga called out as they began advancing again, leaping toward the closest one to Ranma and grabbing on to it around the torso or waist or whatever it was on a bamboo person. He then started straining his muscles trying to tear it apart.

His efforts did nothing but give the other two time to surround him, as all three began their spinning thing again as the arms began to smash repeatedly into Ryoga's arms, side, and head, letting out a constant stream of smacking sounds and the occasional grunt of pain from Ryoga.

Not willing to let him stand there and take it, even if he was being to stubborn to give up his own efforts, Ranma ran up and grabbed one by the leg, hurling it against the wall. It did more damage to the building than the magical creature, and the effort had earned her a welt on her right arm when one of the other two had managed to catch her during the maneuver. Having something that didn't fight at all like a human really messed with her ability to predict what it would do. She'd have to be more careful until she'd figured out their patterns.

"Enough!" Ryoga roared.

The then began to grow until he was over a foot taller. His skin also darkened to a reddish hue and two short horns grew out the top of head. What stood before her now was very clearly an oni. One that now had the strength to finish what he'd been trying to do and ripped the creature he was grabbing in half, tossing both pieces aside as they shrunk back down to their original size.

"Stand down. Revert," Shampoo ordered, as the other two now shrunk as well. "I've seen enough."

"I don't know what's going on here, but as you were attacking my ally, I'm going to have to assume you're my enemy."

This was stated by a silver-haired boy that rose up out of a pool of water on the ground. He then started chanting something and pointed at Shampoo. Ranma wasn't sure what to do, but Ryoga reacted quicker.

"Look out!" he cried, shoving Shampoo out of the way.

His efforts succeeded in making him the target of the attack, as Ryoga's body began to harden, leaving him solid stone in about two seconds. If it weren't for the clothing, you'd think he was just another oni statue. The whole thing created a pit of fear in Ranma's stomach. First teleportation, and now petrification? This was some seriously high level magic.

"We don't want any trouble," Shampoo declared, backing away. "Just let us leave and you won't see us again."

Seems Shampoo didn't much like what she saw from the kid either.

"I very much doubt that," he answered. "It's not the first time Ranma here has interfered."

He then started chanting again causing Ranma and Shampoo to both bolt for the door. Shampoo had been closer, but even she didn't make it through before they were hit. Ranma quickly found herself staring at a stone version of the strange girl, realizing that she herself was still human, even as her clothes shattered leaving her naked. It seems the list of transformations Jusenkyo protected her from included petrification.

"You're the second person today to resist my magic," he informed her. "I wonder if I'm simply not using enough power."

Hearing him chanting again, Ranma made another run for it, this time smashing through a wall since Shampoo's statue was blocking the doorway. She made it around the corner and thought she might actually escape when the boy once again rose up from the ground in front of her. Ranma reflexively held her left arm up in front of her as some kind of shield as he finished his chant, being hit with something only to realize once more that she was still flesh and blood.

"There, that's better," he declared, confusing Ranma until she realized the left hand she was holding up was solid stone.

"You'll be completely stone soon enough. Now I have to get back, even if I am short one ally thanks to your meddling."

The boy then sank into the floor and disappeared. Because of his words, Ranma checked her hand, and sure enough the stone was advancing, even if she had to look very closely to see it. In better circumstances, she'd be thrilled that she had proof the curse could be overcome, but she had bigger problems right now. If that silver-haired boy was working with this group, Negi and her classmates could be in trouble.

First thing first, Ranma wasn't going to run around looking for them naked. Finding her still unconscious captors, she borrowed some clothing. Sure the stuff was too big, but with some controlled ripping and tearing she made some new breast bindings, a shirt, and a belt to hold up some useable pants. She even wrapped up her left hand so it wouldn't look odd to anyone she passed, noting that her new clothes didn't seem to be turning to stone. For the finishing touch Ranma ripped out the now stone ornaments holding up her hair and tied it back into its usual pony-tail.

Now, Ranma just needed to figure out how to even find everyone. She could go back to Cinema Town, but one way or another they were probably gone by now. No, the Kansai Magic Association might be the better choice to start looking. Good thing she'd made sure to find out where that was. Hopefully there'd at least be some sort of a clue there.

* * *

Setsuna was beginning to fear this group of demons was too much, even with the help of Asuna and her artifact. Sure they'd tore through a lot of them early on, but some of them were clearly stronger than the others, and were starting to take a more active role in the fighting. In fact, she was very close to being overwhelmed by the mob surrounding her right now. Thankfully one of them was sent flying away, giving her an opening to deal with the others.

Setsuna turned to to thank Asuna only the have the words die In her throat when she realized it was Ranma that had saved her.

"Finally find you," Ranma said. "Lucky I did at all with you fighting out in the middle of nowhere like this."

"You know, they have this thing called a phone," Asuna cried out. "If you had one we could have actually got in contact with you."

"Never needed one before, but I'll think about it."

For Setsuna however, the sight of Ranma was like a huge burden had been lifted from her. "You're okay!" she said in relief. "We were worried something had happened to you. I'm so sorry for leaving you to fight those guys alone."

"I didn't exactly give you much of a choice," Ranma pointed out. "Besides, I'm fine. Just took a while to wrap everything up and get back."

Judging by the torn and very ill-fitting clothes she was now wearing, Setsuna knew there must be more of a story to it than that, but now wasn't the time to discuss it.

"Well, we can certainly use your help right now," Asuna declared. "So let's get back to fighting demons."

Ranma's presence certainly did help, but it took almost no time to realize that something was wrong. Ranma wasn't using her left arm at all in the fight. She even had that hand wrapped in what she now supposed must be some kind of make-shift bandage. Whatever happened to her, it looked like Ranma didn't make it out uninjured.

"What happened to your arm?" she asked in worry.

"Don't worry about it," Ranma answered dismissively. "It's nothing serious."

"Well, then, how about we make it serious?" One of the demons asked, swinging a sword that slashed across Ranma's bicep.

Setsuna cried out in shock and rushed to Ranma aid, slashing up the demon that had just attacked her friend before turning to exam Ranma's wound.

"I'm fine," Ranma insisted trying to pull away, but Setsuna didn't let her, grabbing the arm to see how bad the cut was.

Only instead of a bloody wound, all Setsuna found was a sliced shirt sleeve and an entire arm of solid stone.

"The petrification magic!" Setsuna said in shock as Ranma pulled away. "You've been hit by it."

This was bad. A slow petrification like this could kill Ranma if the wrong parts of her turned to stone while other parts were still flesh and blood.

"You can't be fighting here!" Setsuna insisted. "You need to be looking for help!"

"Stop worry so much. It's taken it about two hours or so to get this far. I'll be fine for a while yet. Besides, where would I even go for help?"

Two hours? That was some incredible magic resistance. Even Konoka's father had turned to stone in very little time. Still, Ranma had a point. If they knew someone that could cure the magic nearby, they would have helped the people back at Konoka's home already. For now, keeping Ranma nearby might just be the best thing.

"Fine," Setsuna conceded. "But be careful. It's hard to fight without the use of one of your arms."

Whether she was careful or not, Setsuna would be keeping a close eye on Ranma. It was always Ranma helping her, and she was determined to aid Ranma this time.

* * *

Setsuna was right about one thing, it was a huge pain fighting down a whole arm. She was managing, for a while, but now one particularly large demon had honed in on her, and this one was easily the best fighter of any she'd fought so far. Maybe if she could focus her whole attention on it she might be able to fight it evenly, but having to constantly watch out for other demons left her quickly on the defensive. She was covering a good bit of ground just avoiding the relentless assault. Retreating again to get more space, Ranma realized she'd now been backed up to a decently sized river.

"Let's see how well you can swim with a stone arm." the demon declared, rushing at her as fast as she'd yet managed.

With no chance to dodge, Ranma blocked the attack, but found herself being propelled back, landing in the center of the river with a splash. Well, Ranma was about to see just how hard it was to swim like this, but heard a second splash near her. Had the demon followed her in to try to finish her? But it was much smaller hands that grabbed her as she was pulled back above the water to see Setsuna latched on to her and trying to pull her to shore. More surprising though was the left hand she now held up in front of her. Even if she couldn't see it through the wrapping.

"Your arm!" Setsuna said in shock, noticing the same thing as she grabbed at that limb. "It's back to normal!"

"Yeah, guess I just needed a bit of adrenaline to fight the spell off completely," Ranma said, although secretly she had her own suspicions of what just happened.

Ranma didn't think about it much the way her curse was, but it was originally supposed to be water based. The cold water must have given the curse the extra little push it needed to win the fight against the petrifaction over who got control of Ranma's body.

Whatever happened, the pair quickly made it to shore with Ranma eying the demon that had knocked her in eagerly. She leaped back into the fight immediately, and it was a whole different game now that she was back in top form. Sending blow after blow at the thing, Ranma soon overcame its defenses and broke the summoning spell, sending it back to wherever it had come from. The three of them working in concert then continued cutting down on their enemies' numbers, and there was barely a dozen of them left when that blonde swordswoman, Tsukuyomi or something, showed up and tried to slice open Setsuna.

"Oh, I was almost too late," she declared when her initial attack was blocked by Setsuna's sword. "If it had been too much longer, Senpai might have finished up here and run off before I could fight her."

"Need any help?" Ranma asked Setsuna, as both opponents blades began to slash rapidly at each other.

"Just finish up with the demons," she answered. "At the very least, I'll be fine until then."

Ranma gave a quick nod and turned back, only to see two more of the remaining demons seemingly blown apart. Then Ku Fei ran in smashed another back to where it came from with her fists.

"Aww, there's not much left for us," Ku Fei complained.

Just then a bright light shone from off in the distance.

"What's that? Didn't Negi make it in time?" Setsuna asked.

Ranma was suddenly very interested in what was going on over there, especially as she seemed to be less in the know about current events than the others.

"Leave these to us," Mana declared, blocking the swordswoman from Setsuna. "You three go help Negi."

They seemed plenty capable, and there weren't many opponents left, so none of them complained as they ran off to do just that. Asuna pulled out her pactio card, Setsuna quickly following suit, having apparently picked one up at some point. Both began concentrating on them only to start to glow a moment later.

"Negi is summoning us to him," Setsuna explained quickly before they disappeared.

Well, not having any fancy teleport of her own, Ranma would just have to get their the old-fashioned way. Redoubling her efforts, she ran as quickly as she could, hoping to make it in time. As she drew closer, she could see an absolutely massive demon near the source of all the light shows. Not long after it appeared, it almost looked like a barrier formed around the whole thing, and … was that Evangeline flying in the air near it? Then, in a massive blast, the whole demon was blown apart.

Oh come on! All this crazy stuff was happening and Ranma still didn't have a clue what was actually going on. Finally reaching the lake, she ran up to the group just in time to see Negi kiss Konoka, and a dome of bright light wash over the area. Instantly, Ranma felt refreshed, and all the little wounds she'd gathered up during the fight just vanished.

"Ranma, you're back!" Negi then said, waving to her as he looked over. "Looks like everything is okay now."

Ranma was tempted to point out that Evangeline somehow escaping from the school and having her powers back didn't qualify as okay in her book, but doubted the boy would see it the same way. Besides, right now she really wanted to know what had just happened.

* * *

When they'd returned to the compound, they'd found that Konoka's burst of healing had returned everyone there to flesh as well. This led to more than a little bit of celebrating, but Setsuna wasn't much in the mood for it. She'd had to reveal her true form, so it was all over now. While she was lost in thought in the subject, Ranma made her way over.

"So, wings huh?" she asked. "Don't get me wrong, the ears and the tail have their uses, but I'm little jealous of you being able to fly and all."

Setsuna smiled a bit at this. She wasn't surprised at all that Ranma took it so well, especially after Asuna, Konoka and Negi had been so supportive despite being human. Still, that didn't change anything.

"Anyway," Ranma continued, "there's a couple of people turned to stone that were probably too far from here to have been cured in the blast. Konoka's dad thinks he and a few of his underlings can probably fix them with a bit of preparation. But I'm not sure how well either of them are going to act once they're cured, and those guys that chased after me might still be around. So, you want to come along?"

"Yes, I'll come," Setsuna quickly agreed.

She was actually grateful to have one last chance to at least pay off a little of what she owed Ranma before she disappeared. Especially when she was about to ask for another favor. Soon enough, everyone Konoka's father, was bringing was ready, and their little group was on its way. Seeing that the rest of them were discussing something a good distance behind Ranma, Setsuna took the opportunity to sidle up to the other girl.

"I have one more favor I'd like to ask you," she implored. "I'll be leaving soon, and I was hoping you could still keep an eye on Konoka in my stead whenever you could."

"Leaving?" Ranma asked. "What for?"

"I was seen in my true form," she explained. "By the rules of my people, that means I have to leave."

"Well, that's a shame," Ranma told her. "So you'll be going back to your village or something?"

Setsuna just became even more downcast at that. "That won't be an option. They exiled me."

"Wait, what?" Ranma asked. "They kicked you out and you're still just going to listen to whatever they say?"

"Well, if they found out they might try to force the issue," Setsuna explained.

"So don't tell them," Ranma argued. "And if they find out and try to stick their noses into it, we break a few of those noses until they learn better."

Don't tell them? And just refuse to go along even if they do find out? Ranma said it like it was so simple. Was it that simple?

"Besides, do you really care about what a bunch of jerks that kicked you out think more than Konoka and everyone else?"

"Well, no, but it's for her own good," Setsuna countered. "I don't want her to get drawn into my own problems."

"Well, if you're determined to leave I won't stop you," Ranma said. "But here's the deal: I'll only do you your favor if you tell Konoka about all this yourself before you leave. I'm pretty sure you'd be hurting her more by running off than by risking her getting caught up in something that won't ever even happen if we're smart about this."

Ranma really was making a lot of sense. Setsuna certainly didn't want to leave, so why should she?

"So, you going to take my new deal?" Ranma asked.

"No," Setsuna answered. "Because you're right. Why should I go anywhere?"

"That's the spirit," Ranma said. "Now, let's see if we get one last fight before this night is through."

As she said that, she lead them into a compound, walking them through a hole in the wall to a room with the two petrified people in them. Although Ranma hadn't warned them that one of them was an oni.

"So let's get Ryoga and Shampoo here back to normal," Ranma urged.

"Ryoga?" Setsuna said in surprise, but looking over the Oni the face and the clothing did kind of look like his. "This is the boy that attacked Negi?"

"Yeah, I said I wasn't sure how either of them would react," Ranma reminded her. "Still, he didn't seem so bad to me. I'm actually more worried about the girl here."

Even with his warnings, Konoka's father and the others went to work, starting first on Ryoga. Soon enough they succeeded and Ryoga returned to his red colored flesh.

"Huh, where'd Fate go?" Ryoga asked, looking around.

"He's gone," Ranma answered. "You were a statue most of this evening like Shampoo over there. Everything's taken care of now."

Ryoga then seemed to realize something as he let out a startle cry and returned to his human form. "I suppose it's too late for that," he then said looking depressed. "You probably think I'm a monster now."

"Meh, I'm not exactly human myself right now," Ranma told him. "And you don't seem like much of a monster to me."

"Really?" Ryoga said perking right back up. "Oh, I should warn you though about that Negi kid! Did you know he was helping kidnap that Konoka girl?"

"What's this about kidnapping my daughter?" Eishun cut in from where he was working on curing Shampoo.

"Huh, didn't you know?" Ryoga asked. "The western mages took her away to Tokyo or something."

"I sent her to live with her grandfather there, that's all."

"I think Chigusa may have deceived you," Setsuna added, hoping to clear things up for the confused boy. "She's the one who kidnapped Konoka. She then used her power to summon a demon to try to take over the Kansai Magic Association. But we took care of it."

"And I helped her?" Ryoga asked rhetorically, instantly losing all the cheer he'd just built up. "My father seemed to think she'd be okay, so I just trusted her. Everyone must really hate me now."

"So you got tricked," Ranma told him. "I don't think there was any real harm done."

"Thanks for saying that," Ryoga said gratefully.

"You're a Hibiki, right?" Eishun asked.

"Yeah," Ryoga confirmed.

"Then it's no surprise your father would want you to trust her," he continued. "I know her parents got along well with your clan, and they were really good people. I'm afraid Chigusa just never took their deaths very well."

Ryoga looked like he was going to respond, but then suddenly turned to Ranma again looking like he'd just thought of something. "Ah! Before when we met at the hotel," he said. "We really had met before then. Negi had made everyone forget that with some kind of magic potion. So he did that much at least."

"Yeah, I heard him telling you," Ranma explained. "I'm not very happy with it either, but I'm pretty sure it was an accident."

Ryoga was completely cheered up again. That was quite the roller coaster of emotions Setsuna had just witnessed. It was very clear to that they were centered entirely on Ranma. It actually annoyed her a bit that he was so smitten for some reason. She supposed she was just being overly protective of her new friend and Ryoga hadn't given much reason to think he'd be worthy of her.

Well, for now Setsuna needed to turn her attention to this Shampoo girl that had just been released from petrification. Ranma believed her to be the bigger threat, and she didn't want to be caught off guard.

"Ah, Shampoo free from stone," she declared in broken Japanese.

"Guess the language potion wore off," Ranma muttered.

Meanwhile, Shampoo turned her attention to Ryoga. She walked right up to him and slowly leaned her face towards his. The boy seemed frozen a trance, and Setsuna realized that Shampoo was about to kiss him. Then, just before their lips met, Ranma grabbed the back of Shampoo's shirt and pulled her back.

"Why Ranma stop Shampoo?" she asked angrily.

"That wasn't the kiss of death you were about to give him, was it?"

"What? Kiss of death?" Setsuna asked in confusion.

"No," Shampoo said simply. "Ryoga not just protect Ranma. Also sacrifice self for Shampoo after Shampoo chase to Japan. Shampoo decide give kiss of marriage."

"Marriage?" Ryoga said, still seeming a bit in a daze before shaking himself out of it and backing up. "That's why you've been chasing me all this time? I thought you wanted to kill me. You attacked me when we first met."

"Joketsuzoku no like demons skulking near village," she explained. "Then Ryoga beat Shampoo in combat. Laws say marry."

"What kind of a law is that?" Setsuna protested, glad that among the rules she didn't like of her own people, that wasn't one of them.

"I didn't even really beat her," Ryoga added. "I was just running and a tree got in the way. It just happened to fall on her when it broke. I even moved it off and then tried to go for help before I … kind of got a little bit turned around."

"No matter," Shampoo said. "Loss is loss."

"Well, I'm … uh … flattered … really," Ryoga said. "But I'm just uh … not ready for marriage yet. So … uh … bye."

Ryoga then turned and fled out the door. Shampoo just stood there and watched impassively.

"Aren't you going to follow him or something?" Setsuna asked. The girl had seemed so interested in the marriage, she thought she'd put a little more effort into this.

"Have tracking spell on Ryoga," she answered. "Can find any time. Let Ryoga calm down first. Men is often scared of marriage."

Ryoga than reappeared a moment later through the hole in the wall. "Ah, sorry, wrong turn," he said, ducking back out.

"Besides, may be while before Ryoga leave building," Shampoo added with a shrug.

"Well, if there's nothing else to do here, we should be heading back," Eishun suggested.

"Yeah, I'll be heading back to the hotel myself," Ranma declared.

"Really?" Setsuna asked. "You're not coming back to the headquarters? I can create a copy of you to cover for you while you're gone."

"Thanks, but I have something I need to take care of back at the hotel," she answered. "And I'd rather not put it off."

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," Setsuna said. "And thanks again for talking some sense into me."

"Sure thing," Ranma said, heading off.

Setsuna really had been a fool too. First distancing herself from Konoka all this time, and then almost leaving completely. As for now? She was actually looking forward to her life more than she had in a long time.

* * *

Getting back to the hotel, Ranma made a beeline for her room, stopping short when she saw her target standing alone in the hallway.

"You," Ranma said to Chao. "About that device you gave me."

"How did I know you'd need it to break through that barrier when you were captured?" Chao asked.

"Um, yeah," Ranma answered. So much for it possibly just being luck.

"Don't worry, even if I hadn't given it to you, Shampoo would have got you out of there," Chao continued. "I just wanted to prove a point."

"And what point was that?" Ranma asked, now really having trouble making sense of this. Even if Chao was working with Chigusa, how would she know about Shampoo and that she was trying to rescue her?

"That I'm from the future," Chao answered.

"You're from the what now?" Ranma said with a bit of a chuckle. "Is this like your Martian thing?"

"I am a Martian too," Chao insisted. "I'm a human that was born on Mars in the future after it was made habitable for human life."

"I admit you know things you shouldn't have, but does that really mean you're from the future?" Ranma asked, actually considering the possibility, but not fully convinced yet either.

"Yes, and I'd like your help to change it," Chao said. "I want to reveal the existence of magic to everyone."

"Um, isn't that supposed to be a really bad thing to do?" Ranma asked.

"Who told you that? Dean Konoemon and Takahata-sensei?" Chao asked, being right on the money on both counts. "I'd be careful how much trust you put in those two."

"Hey!" Ranma protested. "I've been plenty annoyed with those two at times, especially the dean, but they're not that bad."

Ranma felt she had to defend them at least that much after that gave her a place to stay and saw she had basic needs after what happened with her father.

"You say that, but you don't know what they've been keeping from you," Chao continued. "They may be looking for your father, but I bet they never mentioned that they knew where your mother was all this time."

"My mother is alive?" Ranma asked in shock.

"Your father is too. I can assure you of that much at least," she said.

That second bit of news was even more important to Ranma if it was true. Sure she'd never given up hope that he was, but it would be a huge relief to know he was alive. Ranma was excited about actually having a mother too, but she didn't know her at all, so her father was the bigger issue. Ranma really wanted to believe now that Chao really was from the future, and with everything she knew that she shouldn't be able to, Ranma had already been starting to believe anyway.

But if so, was the part about them hiding Ranma's mother from her true as well? Then again, Ranma's dad had never mentioned her either. Maybe there was a good reason for that.

"And I'm sure that's not the only thing they've been keeping from you," Chao continued. "Sure they probably can't cure your curse, but I don't think the dean is so incompetent that he can't at least undo the addition of that mage of yours. He probably just won't because he's afraid you switching without control whenever water hits you will give away the existence of magic."

A surge of anger shot through her that they could be hiding something like that from her, but wait, the way she'd said that part about the curse was a little different.

"Do you actually know that they're doing that?" Ranma asked. "I'm pretty sure I heard a probably or two in there."

"It's speculation," she admitted. "But I'm pretty confident in my reasoning. Ask them yourself if you doubt any of what I told you. And remember this: if everyone knew about magic, they wouldn't need to worry about your curse giving anything away."

"Still trying to recruit me, I see."

"Yeah, but there's no rush," she said. "Confirm for yourself with the dean and think it over. I'd just ask that until you give me your answer, you not mention this to Negi or anyone else. I plan to talk to him about this too, but the time just isn't right yet. Oh, and one more bonus. If you help me achieve my plan, I'll tell you everything you need to know about that mage of yours. Now I know this is a lot to process, so I'll leave you to it."

It was a lot, and Ranma didn't exactly know where to start. It was just frustrating that she was told all this while she was in Kyoto, because the first thing she wanted to do was go banging on the dean's door demanding answers. At least tomorrow was the last day of the trip. Lost in thought for a while, Ranma soon made her way to her room rather than standing their in the hallway like a statue. She had the room to herself for now, so she lay down and somehow drifted off despite everything going on.

Ranma was woken the next morning by Setsuna getting up to find she'd brought Asuna, Negi, and of course Chamo along as well.

"We're going to go sightseeing with Eva," Negi explained. "Do you want to come with?"

No, Ranma had decided she needed to start putting her foot down more. She'd already been dressed up in a kimono and probably had half the class thinking she was interested in socializing now because she'd let her guard down too much.

"I'll just stay here," Ranma said. "Everything is taken care of so there's no real need for me to come along anymore."

"There's no need to keep your distance like that," Negi said. "Everyone here already knows your secret, and no one thinks any less of you for it."

"Sure I'm trying to keep that from getting out, but I have other reasons for keeping to myself too," Ranma explained.

If anything, the demi-human thing was a distant third on Ranma's list. Not that she was ever going to explain the part about staying manly, because that wouldn't make any sense without admitting the curse, which would only make things extra awkward at an all-girls school.

"Well, then tell us about it," Setsuna suggested. "You helped me with some issues, and I'd love to do the same for you, but I can't do anything if I don't know what's wrong."

"It's all kind of personal," Ranma said. "I'd prefer not to talk about it."

"Come on, tell us!" Negi protested. "Just tell us or we won't stop asking about it."

As Negi continued to plead, Ranma decided that Negi always chose the worst times to act his age.

"Fine," she said. "If you must know I just don't feel it would be right for me to be off prance around having fun while all sorts of horrible things could be happening to my father."

There. She'd explained that much to them. Hopefully they'd be satisfied with that and leave her alone. But Ranma had avoided looking at that while she was saying it, and now turned back just in time to see a slap from Asuna slam into her cheek with a loud smack.

"What was that for?" Ranma asked the angry girl.

"Try thinking before you speak!" Asuna argued. "Or did you forget that what you said could apply to Negi too? Are you trying to make him as miserable as you?"

That verbal slap hurt a lot more than the physical one. Ranma really hadn't thought of that.

"It's alright, Asuna," Negi told her. "I should have realized that's what was going on. It's not like I haven't already thought of things like that myself. It's just that, I know my father wouldn't want me to think like that. He'd be happier if were could make friends and enjoy my life. I'm sure your father would feel the same way."

"I don't really know the details about your father," Setsuna added, "but it's not just about him. You're making the same mistake I made with Konoka. If you distance yourself it only hurts your friends. If you were to go back to the way you were before, it would be troubling to all of us here."

They were right of course. Ranma couldn't imagine her father would her to wall herself off from everyone, but in some ways she still felt it might be the best way to keep her focused on rescuing in him. Still, she didn't realize the others would be so worried about her behavior either. And it's not like she hadn't at least considered being friendlier recently. Even with all the trouble, she had some really good memories of out of all of this.

"Not to mention that a quick kiss and pactio could give you the power you need to rescue him!" Chamo declared excitedly.

Ranma was tempted to give him a good smack, but Asuna beat her to the punch, literally. "You're ruining the mood, you perverted ermine!" she declared.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You guys make a lot of sense, but I've been doing this for a while now. It might not be so easy to break the habit."

"Just do what you can," Asuna told her. "And we'll kick you back on course if you stumble."

"Sounds good," Ranma said with a smile. "I'll even go along with you on your outing … the next time you go without Evangeline."

With that Ranma dashed back into her room and slid the door shut. A few moments later it opened again, and Ranma turned around about to explain why her decision was final, when she came up short seeing Evangeline herself standing there.

"So, you have a problem with me?" she asked, with a feral grin. "Should I take offense to that?"

"N-no," Ranma said quickly. "I don't have any problem with you. It's just ..."

"Just that you're terrified of me," Evangeline interrupted to say as she gave out a gleeful laugh. "Don't worry, I like that about you. You're definitely coming with us. But get cleaned up first. You smell. And don't even think about running off, or I'll hunt you down myself."

Well, it looked like she was going with.

* * *

After the sightseeing, which also included Konoka, Chachamaru, and the library club girls, they finally went to take care of the original reason Ranma was talked into this trip by visiting Negi's father's old place. Ranma tried to help out looking for clues for a while, but the place was mostly just full of books, and she didn't even know where to start. At some point, when her mind was starting to go blank from the monotony, Konoka made her way over.

"Hello, Ranma," she greeted warmly.

"Hey," Ranma said simply.

"Setsuna told me about everything," she said. "That you rescued me and continued to risk your life to protect me. How it was you that convinced her not to run off when everything was over."

"Yeah, well, just helping out," Ranma said.

"I know you probably did all that for Setsuna's sake instead of mine," she continued. "But I want you to know that I'm still very grateful. Even more so, if anything. Anyway, we should spend more time together and get to know each other, since it's important that we become good friends too."

"Wait, why is that important?" Ranma asked.

"To make Secchan happy, of course," Konoka declared with a huge grin.

"Wait, why do I feel like I'm missing something again?" Ranma asked, still not getting Konoka at all, but the only reply she got was to see her smile somehow grow a bit more.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Well, might have been a good wait, but it's a nice long chapter to show for it. And I'm glad to finally start things moving and get some of the Ranma cast more involved. On that note, I will officially declare that in my AU crossover universe, the oni from Ranma canon doesn't exist. The type of oni Ryoga is will be much closer to a more standard mythology.

Looking forward to writing the next major arc. That said, even as I'm clearly not afraid to write long chapters, I'm probably going to need to break that one up to keep it from getting too excessive with everything I have planned for it.


End file.
